She's Not There
by Goldstarrach
Summary: Finn is moving on from a painful breakup when he meets the spirit of a girl, Rachel, who used to live in his new apartment, only she insists she's alive and won't leave Finn alone. Finchel A/U. Based on and inspired by the film Just Like Heaven.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! This is a Finchel A/U inspired by the movie **_**Just Like Heaven **_**(But you don't have to see the movie for this fan fiction to make sense. It just follows the same main story line as the film, but there are plenty of differences!) ****Rachel Berry is living in New York City, starring in an off-Broadway show, living the dream with her best friend, Kurt Hummel. Her life seems perfect, but she's under a lot of stress until she recieves the best news of her life! F****inn Hudson has decided to move to a new apartment to start fresh after a painful break-up when he runs into a girl (Rachel )- but not in the way he would have expected to.  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Glee**_** or any of the characters. I also do not own **_**Just Like Heaven **_**or _Spring Awakening _(which is mentioned)****. This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

"_Rachel, you're amazing!"_

"_Right over here, Rachel! The camera loves you!"_

"_She has the most fantastic voice!"_

_The spotlight was shining bright on Rachel Berry as she bowed during her curtain call for the huge crowd in front of her. She beamed with joy as the adoring theatre-goers showered her with praise after her amazing performance. She couldn't help but bask in all the compliments she was getting for her flawless portrayal of Wendla in the Broadway revival of _Spring Awakening – _she didn't receive compliments all that often from anyone else, so having a huge theatre full of people spouting them out at her was pretty much a dream come true._

_"I love you, Rachel Berry!" one person in the front row yelled toward the stunning young ingénue. It was clear the room adored her._

_"And I love you!" She called back, the message intended for everyone in the room. She had finally hit it big on Broadway! She never wanted this amazing feeling to end! The crowd grew wild and chanted her name over and over again. Could it get any better than this?_

"_Rachel! Rachel! Rachel! Rachel!"_

* * *

><p>"Rachel! Rachel!" Rachel's eyes snapped open as her best friend, Kurt Hummel, shook her awake. She groggily looked around her to take in her surroundings.<p>

Her dressing room had grown darker as grey clouds rolled into the sky, blocking the sun from shining through the window as it usually did. The room was a complete mess – various clothing articles were on the floor and draped over the backs of chairs, many pages of a script were splayed across the already cluttered carpet, and a collection of hair and makeup products were spilled on the vanity table. And what was worse: she wasn't even on Broadway – yet.

Rachel let out a long drawn sigh at the appearance of her room, but Kurt's eyes went wide as he saw the disorderly space, not to mention Rachel's disheveled appearance.

"God, Rachel! This place is a mess!" He shrieked while setting down his shoulder bag on the arm rest of the chair Rachel was laying on. He began to meander around the room, trying to avoid stepping on anything. "Hey, this is mine! You cannot just leave this all crumpled here!" He paused and quickly grabbed a navy blue jacket that was in a corner behind a standing lamp. "This is Marc Jacob's new collection!"

Kurt threw his arms up in exasperation, but Rachel wasn't able to stifle her giggles at her friend's outburst. "You think this is funny?" Kurt eyed her with an angry glare, but she couldn't help herself. She just threw her hands in front of her face and laughed even louder. Eventually Kurt lost it as well and they were both in a fit of giggles.

"I'm sorry, Kurt," She choked out as the laughing died down. "I've just been so busy going over these lines; I haven't really had time to straighten things up. The delivery of every single line has to be _perfect_." She stood up, straightening out the hem of her light blue dress. "I guess I just fell asleep in the process."

Kurt brushed the branches of her smooth brown hair down and placed his palms on her shoulders.

"Rachel. You already earned the part of Wendla – you don't need to be so stressed trying to make your performance better. Honestly, I don't think you _could_ make it any better, it's flawless."

There was no arguing with that – she knew her performance was flawless. Well, she was Rachel Berry, the talented singer and actress who had made her way from having her many talents suppressed in a small town Ohio glee club to being the star in an off-Broadway show in New York City. She was still hoping that _Spring Awakening_ would get put back on Broadway again – she dreamed about it almost every day as she just had before Kurt had stirred her awake.

But it wasn't her performance that was bothering her. It was her understudy.

Sunshine Corazon had seemed like a nice girl when Rachel met her at the _Spring Awakening_ theatre six months ago, but things had changed once the show started to really pick up. Sunshine seemed to always be right on Rachel's heels in one way or another, and she never failed to make Rachel feel as if her performances were flawed, which they never were. No one else seemed to believe it, but Rachel was convinced that Sunshine was trying to overthrow her and take her lead role as Wendla.

"No, it's Sunshine, Kurt!" She exclaimed. Kurt rolled her eyes, but Rachel didn't miss a beat in her rambling. "I swear she is trying to get rid of me! You know, she's offered three times to go over my lines with me. Three times! You know, I think she's trying to sabotage me by trying to get me to change the delivery of my lines so that I perform terribly and she'll be able to take my spot!" She was pacing now across the cluttered floor, speaking quickly and not noticing or caring what she trampled upon.

"Or maybe, she's noticed how stressed out you seem and is just trying to lend a helping hand. Rachel, the girl is not out to get you." Kurt responded. Rachel finally stopped pacing and plopped back down on her sofa chair. "Even if she was trying to sabotage you, it wouldn't work. You're too brilliant to fall for anything like that."

Rachel couldn't help but smile in response to his kind words. It seemed that Kurt always knew what to say to her to make her feel better. They met in high school, and hadn't always been close since they often would try to compete for solos in glee club, but eventually they became very close-knit best friends, though she still considered him to be more of a brother to her.

"Thanks, Kurt." He pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Oh, you know I love you, Rachel." He backed away suddenly from the hug. "But if we hug for any longer, you'll wrinkle my jacket. It's Armani." His tone was very serious, but she couldn't help but be thrown into a fit of giggles once again.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" She laughed once more and backed away from her best friend. "I really need to straighten this place up." She began picking up various items from the floor and holding them in her arms.

"Rachel!" Kurt tugged on her arm. "If you don't come with me now, we are going to be late for our dinner date with Blaine!" Rachel hadn't forgotten about the plans Kurt had made for her and his boyfriend that night, but she didn't want to be a third wheel again.

"You mean _your_ dinner date with Blaine. You know you two will be the ones talking the entire time about things I don't understand like the top ten best Vogue covers or the hottest new trends in Men's fashion." Rachel shook her head at him as he gave her a sad and disappointed look. "Kurt, I love you and Blaine to death, but I always feel like I'm intruding on your all's dates or that you invited me out of pity or something."

Kurt checked his watch quickly before continuing and gave Rachel a frustrated look.

"That is not true! We only sometimes invite you out of pity." Rachel scoffed at this but still smiled as her friend rambled on. "Besides, tonight you wouldn't be intruding. Because I set up a double date."

Rachel's expression changed from amused to upset very quickly at Kurt's news, but he pressed on. "Come on, Rachel! I think you'll really like this guy. He's tall, handsome, and from what I hear he has a pretty good singing voice. This could be the star-potential in a guy you need!" Kurt threw his arms up as if to say "What's not to love?" but Rachel was not having it.

"I'm not going out with someone I've never met or that you've never even met. That usually doesn't end well." Rachel protested.

"Ah, but I do know him! Well, sort of. He's a friend of a friend." Kurt winced as Rachel glared at him. "But I hear he's fantastic!"

"No, Kurt. I'm just going to finish straightening up here, okay? I am absolutely fine with being alone tonight." Rachel continued to pick up items strewn across the floor and tried to shoo Kurt away.

"Fine! I'll go without you. But trust me, there will come a time when you will not be okay with being alone every night, and you'll be wishing you went on this date I so graciously set up for you." He grabbed his shoulder bag and buttoned up his designer jacket.

"Get out of my dressing room, Kurt!" She playfully shouted as she pushed him toward the door and he threw up his arms in surrender.

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving! Just promise me you will get some sleep so you don't snooze out on us in the middle of the show tomorrow night." He poked her nose with his index finger and she nodded, giving him a slight smile. "Good. Now I'll just have to break the news to this guy that you won't be showing up. It's too bad you know, he was pretty darn cute."

"Leave!"

"Alright! Bye, Rachel!" he pecked her cheek quickly before he exited the dressing room and went down the hall to leave the theatre. Rachel shut the door to her room behind him as he left, and continued to tidy up.

But all the while, she couldn't help but think Kurt was right. Because he was. He always was. Yes, she was lonely. She'd only ever had a few boyfriends, none of which she had been in a serious relationship with – she ended it with every one of them. It wasn't that she had commitment issues. She wanted to fall in love and settle down with a guy some day, but she hadn't quite found that guy yet. And lately, she was wondering if she ever would.

It didn't help that almost all of her fellow cast-mates, who had grown to be her best friends in the past months, had boyfriends and girlfriends that they hung out with every night or who even came to many of the shows. It made her feel out of the loop with her friends when it came to their relationships.

Why couldn't she find a guy that she loved? She had plenty of suitors, but she never seemed to fall for any of them. She told Kurt that she didn't let the relationships she had last because the guys she dated lacked the "star-potential and talent" that she had. But really, she just never felt like she could be herself with any of them. She never felt safe or at home with any of them. And from what she'd seen in movies and read in romance novels, those were the things you were supposed to feel when you were in love.

She had considered dating one boy, Jesse St. James, who just happened to play opposite her as Melchior in _Spring Awakening._ He had clearly shown interest in her, and he was a very nice and talented guy, but she couldn't help but feeling that he was an even bigger drama queen than her – and that was saying something. She also didn't want to ruin their show if they would ever break up since they were playing teens that were madly in love. Besides, it was against the theatre company's rule to be romantically involved with your co-stars. So, Jesse was definitely out of the question.

However, she was still young, only 22 and just out of college. She knew she had time to meet the right guy, and she'd stumble upon him someday, she just knew it.

It had only taken about a half hour for Rachel to clean her entire dressing room to the pristine arrangement it was usually in. Satisfied with its appearance, she decided it would be best to get home before the rain that fell outside got any worse. Just as she was gathering her things, she heard a knock on her dressing room door.

It had been three hours since their sound check rehearsal had ended. Who would still be there that long after?

The person knocking on the door let themselves in, poking their head inside and fully stepping in when they saw Rachel was still there.

"Ah, here you are! I'm glad I caught you before you left." Will Schuester, the director of _Spring Awakening, _hardly ever came into the cast's dressing rooms to talk to them. Most of the time, he addressed them as a group or pulled one of them off to the side during a rehearsal, but he hardly ever confronted them alone.

Something had to be wrong.

No! What if Sunshine had gotten away with her evil plan and Rachel was being demoted to understudy? What if Will had thought she and Jesse were together because of her amazing acting leading him to believe that they had actual chemistry?

Will must have sensed that Rachel was worried so he began to reassure her. "You're not in trouble, Rachel. I actually came here to deliver some excellent news." Rachel let out a soft sigh of relief and stared expectantly at her director.

"News? News about what?" Rachel inclined. Will's smile grew larger until it seemed that he wasn't able to contain himself.

"Well, I was going to wait until everyone was together before the matinee tomorrow to tell anyone, but I saw that your dressing room light was on and I just had to tell you." His tone was growing more excited with each word he spoke.

"What is it? No one knows, not Mercedes, or Tina, or Jesse, or Kurt?" The anticipation was starting to kill her. Usually she was the last to know everything, so she was intrigued to hear that she could possibly be the first to hear of this news.

"Rachel Berry, you, along with the rest of the cast, will be starring in the Broadway revival of _Spring Awakening_!" Will announced. Rachel's face lit up, her eyes going wide and a beaming smile spreading across her face.

"What? Really?" Rachel simply could not contain herself! This was her one dream that was finally coming true!

"Yes, really! I was just informed of it tonight! Because the public has taken so well to your and Jesse's performances, the show has been promoted to Broadway in the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it was performed originally!" Will was almost as excited as Rachel it seemed, both of their faces bright with joy.

"I just – I can't believe it!" Rachel started laughing and smiling in awe.

"Well, believe it! Because _you_ made this happen! You and the rest of the cast. The people just love you, Rachel." He pulled her into a massive hug as she squealed for joy. They both laughed and were still jittery, the news having yet to wear off.

"Thank you so much, Will! We couldn't have done it without you." She smiled at him but he shook his head.

"No, Rachel. We couldn't have done it without _you_." He turned to head out the door after he said goodbye, but stopped before he left completely. "Oh, be careful getting home! It is pouring out there. I honestly don't know how these New Yorkers are still out on the streets!" With that he was gone and out the door.

As Rachel left the theatre, she was greeted with buckets of rain coming down at her. She couldn't imagine how upset Kurt must have been considering there was no way he could avoid getting his designer shoes wet in this kind of weather. But no amount of rain would be able to put her in a foul mood. She just learned that she was going to be a star on Broadway!

She was on cloud nine.

She didn't even mind that she had to drive through the rain and the traffic that seemed to last through all hours of the night in New York City. She was just too excited to get home and let her Dads and other friends know. But first, she had to tell Kurt.

She pulled her car out of the parking garage near the theatre and made her way down the slick streets of New York. Kurt answered his phone on the first ring as he always did when Rachel called.

"Rachel, what's up? Decided to join us after all? Well, I already canceled with –"

"No! Kurt, listen! I've just gotten the most amazing news from Will about the show! Now, you'll hear this tomorrow from Will anyways, but I just had to tell you now." Rachel was speaking very quickly, hardly allowing herself any time to breathe.

"Okay, slow down Rachel. You've gotten my attention, as well as Blaine's. What's the news?" She could hear him trying to shush Blaine in the background and she let out a soft giggle. Rachel steadied her grip on her phone while the other was on the steering wheel.

"Okay. Kurt Hummel, I am pleased – no! I am ecstatic to inform you that you will be reprising the role of Ernst in the Broadway revival of _Spring Awakening_!" The other line was dead silent for a few seconds.

"Shut up. Shut up! You aren't serious!" Kurt squealed over the phone.

"I'm very serious! And I'll tell you all about it when I get home, but I have to go now because talking on a cell phone in New York traffic while it's pouring is not the easiest task." She giggled, but Kurt seemed to be too busy relaying the information to Blaine to hear her that well.

"What – oh! Okay, Rachel! Call me as soon as you get home! Love you!"

"Love you, Kurt! Bye!" She hung up and continued driving to her apartment through Manhattan.

Suddenly, as if to match her mood, one of her favorite songs came on the radio. Could this night be any better? She reached down to turn up the volume and started singing along at the top of her lungs. There was only one way to describe this feeling. It was pure bliss.

But when she looked back up to the road, everything seemed to fall into slow motion. She could no longer hear the radio blasting around her, or the rain pounding on the roof of the car. Everything went silent as the two bright lights raced toward her. The truck that was in the wrong lane was far too close for her to even try to react. The lights were moving closer to her, closing the distance until the bright yellow was the only thing in her vision. She couldn't even hear herself scream.

Then everything went black.

* * *

><p><strong>What happened to Rachel? Where's Finn? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!<strong>

**Next chapter we'll see what Finn has been up to, and how Rachel comes into his life.**

**Read & Review!**

**-Goldstarrach**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ready for chapter 2? We get to meet Finn in this one! The POV shifts a bit to only express Finn's thoughts, which is always fun because I really enjoy writing his inner ramblings.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven_. This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

"Dude, is that your fourth?"

"Fifth." Finn answered his best friend, Noah "Puck" Puckerman, as he lifted his fifth can of beer to his lips and let out a long drawn out sigh. Spending time at Puck's place was always cool, but Finn had recently found that the greatest advantage to doing so was the seemingly never-ending supply of beer in his fridge.

"Well, take it easy, bro, 'cause I sure as hell won't be driving you home." Puck kicked up his feet on his coffee table and turned up the volume on the TV.

"What home?" Finn shot back sarcastically. "And I don't have a car anyways, so I'll be riding the subway to… nowhere, I guess." He laughed a bit at himself and took another sip of beer.

Puck eyed his friend then quickly shut off the television.

"Look, man. You need to stop this shit." Finn sent Puck a glare, but just shook his head and placed the can to his mouth again. "Seriously, Finn!" Puck quickly swiped the can away from Finn's grip and set it on the opposite end of the table, spilling some on both of them in the process.

"What the hell!" Finn shouted, quickly grabbing napkins and dabbing his wet shirt. "What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with _you_? Look, man, you have a decent job, you get paid alright. Your problem is you keep blowing your money on beer. You have seriously got to get your own place." Finn rolled his eyes at Puck, but he knew that he was right.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I just…" Finn's sentence trailed off as he got lost in his thoughts.

"It's been like three months, dude. It's time to move on."

Again, Puck was right. But as the days went by, Finn was finding it harder and harder to just move on.

Finn hadn't always been like this. About a year ago, he was on top of the world. He was in his senior year at the Metropolitan College of New York – not the most prestigious school, but he was happy to have gotten into anywhere. He grew up in Ohio but was desperate to leave and make a name for himself, so he ended up attending school in New York City. That was where he met his best friend, Puck, who was his roommate all throughout school.

But it was also where he met the love of his life, Quinn Fabray. Or so he thought. Quinn was gorgeous, and very popular with the student body. Everyone saw her as an all around good, Christian girl, who was smart, pretty, and athletic. Finn couldn't help but fall in love with her.

They had been together since their sophomore year of college, so by his senior year, he was really starting to think that this would be the girl he would spend the rest of his life with. He was actually planning on proposing.

Then she got pregnant.

Finn wasn't one of those guys who just up and left their girlfriends once they knocked them up. Yes, he was upset, but he was going to stick by her side and help her get through it. He got two jobs to help support the baby and waited on Quinn hand and foot whenever she got really moody. He loved her, and he wanted to be a good father to his baby.

About 4 months into Quinn's pregnancy, Finn found out that Quinn's baby wasn't even his. She cheated on him with one of his good friends, Sam, and she told Finn it was his baby knowing he would be more supportive than Sam would have been. Finn broke up with her immediately, and their relationship didn't end on good terms. He hadn't spoken to her since then.

Ever since he had been pretty messed up. Even now, 3 months after the break up, and 2 months since he had graduated, he still moped around – not having took the time to find his own place, and drowning his sorrows in beer.

For a while, no one could blame him. He'd lost a friend, the love of his life, and a baby that he'd been the father of for 4 months. No one said that letting go would be easy.

But Puck was right. Finn was doing nothing but screwing himself over. And he knew it was time he made some changes.

"Yeah, I was thinking letting go might be a good idea." Finn let out a sigh and slumped back on the couch.

"Good. Then tomorrow, we're hitting the town, you and me, and we are going to find you an apartment." Finn nodded his head in agreement. "And you're too wasted to walk around out the streets tonight. You're crashing here, bro."

"I was hoping you may say that."

"And after we find that apartment, we are going to Times Square to flirt with all the hot tourist girls! They won't be able to keep their hands off you if you're with Puckzilla." Puck ran his hand through his Mohawk and pounded his chest with his fist.

"Yeah, let's just work on the apartment first, Puckzilla."

* * *

><p>"Okay, this place is the shit!" Puck exclaimed as he and Finn walked around a spacious apartment, looking at their surroundings.<p>

It was everything Finn had wanted out of a place. It was completely furnished, had multiple rooms, a great view of the Manhattan streets below him, and it was affordable. They had almost given up for the day on finding an apartment until they stumbled upon a small ad in the paper for the one they were in now.

And for Finn, it was perfect.

"Yeah, just why is it a month to month sublet? What did the owners say on the phone?" Finn asked while opening the fridge to see how much space there was in it.

"They didn't say much of anything. I would have turned on the Puckster charm, but the dude seemed pretty upset."

"The dude?"

"_No one_ can resist my bad-boy ways." Puck took a running jump onto the couch sitting in the main room. "So, what do you say? Is this it?"

Finn walked to the large window overlooking the busy streets below him. This was just what he needed, a brand new place to start fresh in. This was going to be his new beginning that would help him let go of everything that happened in the past few months.

"Yeah, man. This is it."

* * *

><p>About a week had passed since Finn had finished moving his belongings into his new apartment – it hadn't taken very long considering he didn't have all that many belongings, and most of them were at Puck's place, so Puck was more than eager to help get them out of his way.<p>

Finn felt more at home in his new apartment than he had anywhere for the past 4 years. It may have only been a few days that he'd been living there, but he was already growing pretty attached to the place. He wished that it would have been rented to him for a full year, rather than a month to month lease. He still didn't know why that had been the deal, but he wanted to know in case they were planning on making it unavailable to him soon. It wasn't likely, but he didn't want to take any chances.

Now that he was back on his feet, he didn't see any harm in drinking a couple beers every night – it did help him relax, and it wasn't like he was getting wasted like he did all the time a couple weeks ago.

He tilted a can of beer to his lips while watching a hockey game on the couch only to find it was dry. He placed the empty can down next to the other one and the empty trays of order-in on the coffee table. One more beer couldn't hurt. Besides, he wasn't drinking in self-pity; he was drinking in happiness for once.

He stood up, wearing only his superhero boxers that he only wore when he was in a really good mood, and a grey t-shirt, and made his way to the fridge. He rounded the corner and flipped on the light switch that was on the inside of the kitchen wall.

"_Ahhh!_"

"_Ahhh!_"

"Please, take whatever you want! Just don't hurt me!" A terrified looking short brunette stood in Finn's kitchen screaming at him, her hands held high above her head.

"What? I'm not stealing anything!" Finn was almost as frightened as the petite girl appeared to be, but she had to have been more than a foot shorter than him, so if she was a psycho killer, she didn't seem to pose much of a threat.

The girl looked around frantically, probably deciding her next move to make against the tall man in front of her. She appeared to be about 5'2, the top of her head below Finn's shoulder. She wore a light blue dress covered in small white polka dots that hit a couple of inches above her knees. She shuffled her feet from side to side, Finn noting that she wore brown loafers and white knee socks.

Who was this chick? She dressed in a way that made her look like she was 10 but by the looks of her, she had to have been around his age. Her skin looked very smooth, glowing under the kitchen lights. She had full, pink lips, sitting in a grimace at the moment, and her nose seemed a bit larger than most, but it complimented the rest of her face in a way.

Finn couldn't help but think she was attractive, but it was hard to think about her in that way when she just popped up in his apartment out of nowhere.

Her expression slightly softened when she looked him up and down, seeing he didn't exactly look like someone dangerous.

"Look, I'm sorry you're homeless, but you need to get out of here and sleep somewhere else!" the girl screamed at him. She looked at him, disgusted, her eyes wide and her jaw remaining dropped.

"I'm not homeless, I live here!" He retorted. Her deep brown eyes grew wider and she crossed her arms, obviously frustrated with him.

"That is not possible, because I live here! This is my apartment!"

She was definitely a psycho.

"Since when?"

"Since I rented it six months ago!" She shouted. Before Finn could respond, she walked out of the kitchen and looked at the messy apartment, straightening out the wrinkles in her dress. "And look at what you've done to all my stuff!"

"Your stuff?"

"Yes, all of this furniture belongs to me! That's my lamp, my chair, my couch, my coffee table!" She began pacing and trying to straighten things up, but seemed to decide against it. "No, you know what? I don't know who the heck you are, but you are going to clean this entire apartment before I kick you out on the streets! You will throw all of this away, you will scrub the table tops and you will mop this floor!" She quickly walked out of the main room into the kitchen while shouting at him. "I'll find you the cleaning products."

Finn was speechless. Who was this crazy girl who just busted into his apartment, acting like he was the one intruding? Was this one of Puck's practical jokes or something? Did the building do this to all of the newcomers?

"Okay, hold up!" He called after her, following her footsteps into the kitchen. "Now, I rented this place from the owner and you must be crazy or – " Finn's speech cut off abruptly. There was no one there. He looked around the room, but there were no doors or windows that she could have possibly gotten out through.

He went through the main room and looked down the hallway that led to the door.

No one was there. "Hello?" Nothing.

Okay, this was seriously messed up.

Maybe he had better go easy on the beer after all.

* * *

><p>Finn was convinced that he must have been hallucinating after drinking too much, but he made sure to lock all the doors and windows just in case the freaky chick he saw was real and she tried to get back in, though he doubted she was real.<p>

For some reason, he did feel compelled to clean up though. Maybe the hallucination was part of his conscience telling him to stop being such a slob, so he decided to tidy up a bit.

By the time all of his trash was thrown away, it was about 1:00 in the morning, and after a long day at work, he was tired out.

He would have just jumped into bed but he remembered what his Mom said about brushing your teeth every night and how important oral hygiene was, so he went into the bathroom to brush them really quickly.

He was just about done brushing and he was thinking about how proud his Mom would be of him for keeping up with good habits. He'd make sure to call and tell her tomorrow.

He looked up into his mirror, and his eyes went wide while he spat out all of the foam onto the mirror. "Shit!"

"I told you to leave!" He saw the small brunette peering into the mirror standing behind him, anger written all over her face.

He whipped around quickly to face her, but when he did, she was gone. There was absolutely no one there but him.

What the hell was going on?

* * *

><p>"Dude, what's up?" Puck called as he walked to the table Finn sat at in the bar that they often went to when they wanted to hang out or wanted to get drunk but weren't at home, and set down a beer bottle in front of him.<p>

"Nothing's up really." Finn placed his hand on the bottle hesitantly but pushed it away.

"So you called me at this ungodly hour of the morning to meet you here, and you have nothing to say to me?"

"It's 2:00 in the afternoon."

"Well, I'm not due to be awake for another 2 hours. What the hell is up?" Puck banged his fist on the table to get Finn's attention, but Finn didn't seem to budge.

He looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone close enough to them to hear their conversation before he told Puck what was going on. When he felt safe from other's ears, he looked Puck straight in the eye.

"There was a girl in my apartment last night." He whispered. Puck's face lit up at his words.

"Seriously? That's awesome, bro! Now that is my Finny boy! How was she?" He smiled slyly and Finn and waggled his eyebrows at him.

"No, no, no! Not that! I mean," he paused and looked around before continuing with a lower voice. "There was a girl in my apartment that wasn't actually…there."

"What was she wasted, high? Was she unavailable or something? Don't let those things stop you!" Puck was speaking louder than Finn would have liked. Finn sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the skin between his eyebrows.

"No, Puck. I mean, she wasn't…real." Puck stared at him blankly for a few seconds, but eventually recognition spread across his face.

"Oh, you mean a hallucination or something." Finn nodded his head. "Oh cool, man. Was she hot?"

"I was a little too busy freaking out over there being some control-freak tiny girl running around my apartment to really get a good look at her." He wasn't being completely honest there – she was pretty hot. But that was beside the point. If he had said she was hot, Puck would have pressed for more details about her when what Finn really needed was some advice.

"Okay, okay. So, when you saw this…fake girl running around your house, were you shit-faced?" Puck said flatly. He had no problem being blunt.

"No!" Finn exclaimed. Puck eyes him suspiciously. "No, Puck, I wasn't, really! I only had 2 beers, I swear. I think maybe it was like my conscience trying to send me a message or something." Finn began to anxiously tap his fingers on the table in front of him.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming? I've had girls come to me in my dreams all the time." Finn shook his head in response.

"No, I'm sure I was awake." Finn said. He looked at the beer in front of him. "You know, maybe I shouldn't drink at all anymore. I think it's messing me up."

"Dude, can't you see? The beer isn't your problem. It's girls." Finn rolled his eyes at Puck once again, but he was not fazed. "No, really. I think your mind is trying to tell you that you need to spend time with women! When's the last time you got laid?"

At this, Finn began to stand up and gather his things.

"Thanks for your help Puck."

"Seriously, though."Puck's tone grew serious. He grabbed Finn before he could get too far away. "You're lonely. I know you are. You need to get out more, meet new people! It's time to start putting yourself out there dude."

Maybe he was right. Puck may have not been the smartest of guys when it came to school, but he did know how to work with people and get what he wanted. Finn was open to meeting new girls too – to answer Puck's question, it had been longer than he would have liked.

"Okay. I'll try to start meeting some new people."

"Atta boy, Finny! Now pay for these beers, we're going to my place." Puck stood up from the table and threw some cash down.

"How am I supposed to put myself out there if we're going to your apartment?"

"We're going to my apartment to get my guitar. Then you and I are going to put on a show for the lovely tourist women out on the streets." Finn laughed at Puck's proposition and nodded his head. He didn't care so much about meeting women, but he definitely needed a night out on the town with his best friend today. "Finn, my man, you are going to get lucky tonight!"

* * *

><p><strong>Don't worry, Finn hasn't seen the last of his tiny brunette hallucination:) Stay tuned for the the next chapter!<strong>

**Read and Review!**

**A/N: I made Sam the one who Quinn cheated with because I really wanted Puck to be friends with Finn in this story. I just had to have Puck, he's too hilarious not to have:)**

**-Goldstarrach**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's the next part! It's a bit longer than the first two, but I don't think you'll mind:) Please tell me your thoughts!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee _or any of the characters. I also don't own _Just Like Heaven. _This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Things around Finn's apartment had been normal for about four days now, so he was beginning to think this whole hallucinating business was over. Maybe going out on the town with Puck had done the trick – maybe the crazy girl who had shown up had been a message to go meet some new people or something.

Either way, he was the only one that had been in his apartment lately, and that was just the way he liked it.

After a long day out, Finn just wanted to go to sleep more than anything. He once read that teenagers needed more sleep than babies did. He may not be a teenager anymore, but three years ago he was, and he didn't see how much of a difference that made.

He plopped down onto the queen-sized bed in his bedroom and stretched out his legs. He was used to sleeping on beds that were far too short for his 6'3 stature, so it was a nice change to finally have a place to sleep where his feet didn't hang off the edge.

He closed his eyes and just lay there, breathing steadily, his mind beginning to doze off into a peaceful sleep.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Damn it.

Finn's eyes shot wide open in response to the shouting that was coming from in front of him. There she was again! He'd finally gotten rid of her, and she comes right back – at a very inconvenient time of course.

"Go away. You're not real!" Finn moaned at the petite girl in front of him. He closed his eyes and flopped to the side, trying to ignore the fact that some sort of other-worldly being was standing on the foot of his bed.

"Why are you still here?" The girl continued to scream at him, but he refused to face her. She wasn't real! What was the point in arguing with a figment of his imagination?

"It's just a dream. I'm just dreaming like Puck said about a hot girl in my apartment. It'll all go away." Finn jammed his eyes shut and covered his ears, but his actions had no effect of blocking out her shrieks.

"Excuse me? First you come into my apartment and trash the place and then you start objectifying me?"

Finn gave up on ignoring her and turned to face her, his eyes heavy with sleep.

"I didn't mean to personify you or whatever, but usually the girls in my dreams don't argue with me." He said in a very calm voice. He stared at her blankly, and her angry expression softened to one of pity.

The girl sighed and slowly took a seat on the foot of the bed, Finn sitting up rather quickly, keeping his distance from her.

"Wow. This is worse than I thought. Listen – what's your name?" She spoke to him now in a soft and kind tone – Finn figured it was to make him feel less threatened.

"Finn Hudson…"

"Okay, Finn. Have you been drinking at all lately?" She asked. The girl tilted her head to the side, waiting for his reply, her eyes wide and questioning.

"A little." Finn answered cautiously.

"And have you been seeing things at all, like hallucinations, or things that aren't really there?" She inquired. What was she getting at?

"Yeah, actually I have. Why are you interrogating me?" Finn ran his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes quickly, but opened them once again when she spoke.

"Look, Finn. I think you may need to consider the possibility that you are mentally ill." She nodded her head while she spoke to him, but Finn did not understand. If anyone was mentally ill, it was her!

"Lady, you're in _my _apartment, and you won't leave! You're the one who's crazy." After he said it, she gasped in disbelief and gave him the angry expression that he was so used to seeing by now.

"And that's why you're insane! You have somehow convinced yourself that this apartment belongs to you, when really, it belongs to me." She spoke slower now, annunciating each word like she thought he was stupid. He got enough of being told he was dumb from real people, he didn't need it from some hallucination too!

But he had given up trying to get this person, or dream, or whatever to go away. He decided to just let her ramble on until she got tired of it and left.

"That's my bed, that's my night stand, that's my television, that's my picture fr –" She paused in her speech as she looked to the bed side table and saw nothing sitting there. "What did you do with my picture frame?" She asked Finn accusingly as she jumped up from the bed and walked over to the empty side table.

"Nothing, there was nothing there when I got here." Finn insisted. "What are you talking about?" He honestly had no idea what this girl meant whenever she said anything at all.

"Right there," she said, motioning to the side table. "There was a picture, a picture of…of – there was a picture there! And now it's gone!" She spoke frantically and continued to look at Finn like he'd done something terribly wrong.

Finn was sick and tired of all this nonsense.

"I'm done with you! Get the hell out of my apartment!" He shouted at her, causing her to take a step back in surprise. She looked him up and down in disgust, and reached for the nearest object she could find to throw at him.

"I may be small, but I am _very _forceful!" Her hand was inches above the alarm clock on the night stand, her weapon of choice, but when she tried to pick it up, she couldn't do it.

Finn watched in awe as the girl's hand seemed to go right through the alarm clock like it was air. She waved her hand through it a couple of times, whining, but nothing changed. "What did you do to my alarm clock?" She shouted at him, crossing her arms.

"Of course you blame me for your density problems!" Finn shouted back at her, throwing his arms up in protest.

"Whatever! I've had enough of you, I'm calling the police! You stay there. I'm getting the phone in the other room." She continued to mutter to herself as she stalked off.

But before she could leave the room, her entire body faded away, leaving Finn staring at an empty hall that lead to the door. Seconds ago he was watching this girl yell at him and now she had disappeared in front of his very eyes!

He simply couldn't ignore this any longer. He had to figure out who this girl was, now!

He looked at the alarm clock that would have been thrown at his head if it weren't for the girl not being able to hold anything, and saw that it was 1:00 in the morning. That would explain why he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

Waiting until tomorrow couldn't hurt.

* * *

><p>The first thing Finn did when he woke up the next morning was call Puck.<p>

"Dude!" Puck yelled at him groggily over the phone. "It's like the middle of the night!" Finn rolled his eyes, not bothering to tell him that it was actually 9:00 AM. It was a good thing Finn didn't have work today because he would have called even earlier if he had to be up for that.

"This will be quick, man, I promise." Finn pleaded, not wanting to anger Puck anymore than he already had.

"Fuck you, Hudson." He sighed into the phone. "What the hell do you want?"

"When you talked to the people who let me rent this place, did they say anything about the previous owner?" Finn asked, waiting patiently while Puck just breathed into the other end.

"Uh… the dude didn't say much of anything. Some sort of tragedy I think." Puck slurred his words as he spoke. He was not going to last much longer in this conversation.

"Do you think the girl that lived here is dead or something?" Finn asked.

"I don't know, okay? Fuck off, Finn. I'm tired!" Puck shouted at him and the line went dead.

By the looks of it, this chick was not alive, and for some reason her ghost was haunting Finn in her old apartment.

He certainly had some researching to do.

* * *

><p>Finn couldn't believe that he had actually walked into this place.<p>

Living in New York City, he'd seen a lot of weird things, but nothing like this.

Everywhere he looked, he saw creepy novelty items – right when he walked through the door, there were shrunken heads hanging in front of him, and he saw various jars that looked like they held fake aliens and various skulls here and there.

But what disturbed him the most was not any of these freaky items, but the fact that every other person around him either looked like they were giant 30 year old nerds, goths, or pedophiles. He felt very out of place.

But he had to find some answers about this ghost chick living in his apartment, so he suffered through the unnerving surroundings of Planetary Enchantments, a store full supernatural odds and ends in Manhattan.

He quickly made his way to a shelf of books toward the back, trying to avoid the other people in the shop. He managed to find the section that had guides to the afterlife and information on ghosts. Where was the manual for a control-freak brunette spirit who refused to leave your apartment?

"Can I help you?" Finn turned to face a very attractive blonde girl who was standing next to him, flashing him a big smile. Pinned on her purple blouse was a name tag that read "Brittany". What was a girl like her doing here?

"Uh, sure. Do you…work here?" He asked eyeing her suspiciously, but she just stared at him and nodded.

"Of course. See my name tag, it says…um…" She struggled to read her name tag upside down. Now her being here didn't seem so strange.

"Brittany, right?" Finn helped her out.

"Oh my God, how did you know? Are you like psychic or something? You should totally meet my cat, he's wanted to meet someone who's psychic like him, but I can never seem to find anyone." Brittany rambled on. Finn looked at her to see if there was any chance she was joking, but he found no hint of humor in her voice or in her face. This girl was serious.

"No, I'm not psychic. But I'm looking for something on ghosts. I think I have one living in my apartment." Finn said, unashamed. He had a feeling she would believe anything he told her.

"That's awesome." Brittany said, nodding her head.

"Yeah, so, do you have any books that could help me?" Finn continued.

"Well, do you want to talk with the spirit? I have some awesome séance stuff." Brittany began to look through some books on the shelf in front of him.

"Well, she doesn't seem to have a problem with talking. She talks non-stop." Finn said thinking back to the last time he encountered her. It was difficult to get one word in with that girl.

"Oh, cool. Well, try these." Brittany replied, pulling off multiple books the shelf and throwing them at Finn's arms.

"I don't really want to buy all of these." Finn said as Brittany threw the fifth book at him.

"Buy them? You don't have to buy them! I always just give people whatever they want free of charge. My boss said we're losing money and going out of business, and that we had to get rid of everything, so I'm just doing my job." Brittany explained, and smiled at him again.

Finn didn't want to take advantage of this girl, but hey, he wasn't about to pass up any free stuff.

"Uh, thanks! I'll try them out." He began to walk out of the store with the stack of books in his arms and Brittany waved at him, smiling, looking so innocent.

He turned right around and gave her a 20 dollar bill. He liked being generous and giving back to people.

He'd be sure to call his Mom and tell her about that too.

* * *

><p>Finn sat on the floor in the middle of the main room of his apartment surrounded by a circle of candles with various books lying open in front of him. If Puck saw this, he would never let him live it down.<p>

He could not believe he was actually doing this.

But he was willing to do just about anything to get this ghost girl out of his house, and if that meant looking like a lunatic and chanting weird spells, he'd do it.

He tried to clean the place up as much as possible in case something he did from one of the books made her upset. He didn't really know how this whole ghost thing worked, but one thing he knew was this girl could not stand messes.

He skimmed over pages of the books in front of him. A lot of these things required that he talk to himself. He hadn't really done anything like that except once when he had prayed to a grilled cheese sandwich, but that seemed a lot different than trying to summon a spirit.

"Spirit awaken. Spirit forsaken." Finn began to read the words from the page in front of him. "Spirit have no fear. Spirit appear!" Finn held his breath in the silence and looked around him to see any sign of her. Nothing.

He'd been doing this for an hour now, and none of these spells or chants seemed to be working at all. She was so purposely ignoring everything just to annoy him! He knew it.

Well, two could play that game.

He carefully stepped over his ring of candles and went straight to the fridge. Sitting inside were a few cans of beer but what he was going for was the big box of Chinese take-out. He grabbed the box and went back over to the main room and stood right beside the coffee table in front of the couch.

"In my hand, I have a box of days old Chinese food!" He called out, hoping to grab her attention. "I'll just open it up now…" He quickly opened the top of the box and couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Oh, no! I think my grip is slipping right above this wonderful coffee table!" Finn began to turn the box upside down right above the table.

"Don't you dare move an inch!"

That's exactly what he wanted to hear.

The girl stood on the opposite side of the coffee table, her hands in fists at her side while her eyes shot at him like daggers. She looked exactly the same as she had every time he'd seen her before. The same blue dress and white knee socks, her hair in the same style falling straight a bit past her shoulders.

He'd never been happier to see her.

"Hey," he began, setting down the take-out carefully on the table. "I need to talk to you."

"You need to talk to me?" She sounded annoyed, and she crossed her arms. "About what?"

Finn thought about what he was going to say, choosing his words carefully as to not make her mad and storm off. She seemed to disappear on him whenever she left in a rage.

"Has anything seemed a little weird to you lately?" He began, hoping she'd help him out.

"Hmm, well, let me see. Would you find there being a complete stranger living in your apartment weird?" She replied. He did think it was weird, which was exactly why he was doing this. But she was pissed, so he needed to approach this differently.

"Let's just start over, okay? You already know I'm Finn Hudson. What's your name?" He said to her, smiling and sticking out his hand to shake hers. She looked at his hand like it was the plague.

"Um, my name? My name is…" She paused and looked around the room until she saw the mirror on the wall behind her. She searched for something it seemed like, and Finn could see her expression brighten in the mirror. "Rachel!" She said confidently, turning back to face him with a triumphant grin on her face. "My name is Rachel."

Now that he was this close to her, he could see details that he hadn't been able to before. He saw she had these 2 light brown beauty marks on her cheek and a few freckles on her nose. He saw that her already brown eyes had even darker brown specks in them. But he also saw that hanging around her neck was a gold necklace with a charm that distinctly read in cursive letters: "Rachel".

"You didn't know that! You saw your necklace in the mirror." Finn shot back at her and she grimaced at him.

"I'm pretty sure I know my own name." She replied in an annoyed tone.

"Okay, Rachel, what have you been up to lately? Who have you talked to besides me in the past week?" She looked down when he questioned her, refusing to look him in the eye.

"Th-th-That is absolutely none of your business." She insisted, shaking her head at him. She kept looking around from side to side frantically, but she made no move to escape.

"Why are you stuttering? You're lying, aren't you?" Finn began to smile but she just rolled her eyes at him.

"Ugh, please. You are impossible." She scoffed.

"Do you wonder why you can't talk to anyone but me? Why you haven't gone anywhere at all? Why you've worn the same clothes for over a week now?" He asked, moving closer to her, only making her back away from him.

"Why are you interrogating me in my own apartment? I'm the one who should be interrogating you!" She turned behind the couch putting distance in between the two of them.

"Has there been anything really devastating or dramatic happen around here at all?" He questioned, following her around the couch, making her back up even more.

"Like what?" She shot back nastily.

"Hmm, I don't know, like your death?" He spit back at her.

She gasped at him and her mouth gaped open as she stared at him disgustedly.

"How dare you say something like that to me!" She screamed at him. He didn't think it was possible for someone so small to have so much anger. He couldn't help but laughing – she was just so damn tiny. "And you're laughing! What do you want?"

She continued to back away while he kept trying to close the distance between them.

"Don't freak out, calm down! I just want you to accept the fact that you're – "

"I'm not dead! Why would you say that? I wouldn't be here if I were dead! I'd know if I was dead!" She yelled.

He stopped walking toward her when he realized there was a table in front of him and he could move no further. His mouth dropped open when he saw that the table was no barrier for Rachel. The upper half of her body was visible, but the lower half was hidden beneath the table top.

Her eyes followed his to where he was staring and she screamed.

"What's going on?" She breathed, a look of fear spreading across her face.

"_You're dead!_" He screamed, making her rush toward him in anger, removing herself from the table.

"Stop it!" She yelled, lifted her hand to smack him in the face. Finn closed his eyes waiting for the impact, but he felt nothing. He opened his eyes to see Rachel staring at her hand, frustrated that her slap had gone right through his face.

She tried to slap him again but to no avail.

"Okay, stop!" Finn yelled at her. She lunged for him once again but he backed up. "Look, I know you can't really do anything about your…condition, but I just want you to leave my apartment!" He shouted. She stopped trying to slap him and stared him straight in the eyes.

"You're the one who needs to get out!"

Finn sighed. There was seriously no beating this girl. If he didn't know she would just go right through him, he would have thrown her over his shoulder and carried her out of his apartment.

"I'm not going anywhere. I paid for this place and this is where I'm staying." Finn told her matter-of-factly.

"Well neither am I." She smirked at him and raised her eyebrows. "I'm a very determined girl, Finn. You'll soon learn that."

She walked off and disappeared before his eyes once again. Maybe she'd stay away for the rest of the night.

* * *

><p>He was so wrong.<p>

Rachel popped up out of nowhere – literally – all the time. She'd follow him around, talking his ear off and criticizing his eating habits. Finally when he was fed up with her always staring at him and walking on his heels, he trudged into the bathroom and shut the door.

He was aware that she could walk right through it, but he was hoping she wouldn't want to since it was the bathroom, and he really needed to take a shower anyways. Keeping his boxers on seemed like a good idea just in case, though.

Once he was in the shower, he decided he'd sing some classic rock. He only ever really sang in the shower, except when he occasionally sang with Puck on the streets to meet girls or if he was in desperate need of money.

He actually really liked singing. And he'd always liked music. He was actually a music major in college but he was working as a hotel receptionist part time at the moment. It was definitely not what he wanted to do with his life, but he couldn't find much work, and Puck had pulled some strings to get him this job. It was alright. He was a people person and he _did_ get paid well.

He was finally done showering, still with his boxers on, and he opened the curtain to step out.

"Jesus, Rachel!" He shouted when he saw her sitting calmly on the sink counter.

"Hello there." She waved and smirked to him. "I told you I was determined." She said. "I'll let you dry off and get dressed."

"Why thank you, that's so nice of you." Finn replied sarcastically, grabbing a towel.

She opened the door and walked out, but quickly popped her head back in.

"You're a good singer." She said. Finn's face went red, embarrassed that she had been listening. But he was surprised that she managed to actually say something nice for once. "But you're a bit sharp."

So much for a compliment.

If she didn't leave soon, this was going to be hell.

* * *

><p><strong>They don't seem to be getting along too well, do they? Hopefull they'll warm up to each other soon!<strong>

**What is going on with Rachel? Why doesn't she seem to remember anything about herself at all? Keep reading!**

**Read & Review!**

**-Goldstarrach**


	4. Chapter 4

**Can't believe we're at chapter 4! I've really enjoyed writing this, and I hope you all enjoy it too:) If you haven't noticed, this part of the story has been mainly following Finn's POV, but we'll learn more about Rachel later. In this chapter, we'll be seeing just how Finn and Rachel have been getting along... and if anyone is wondering where Kurt is and the rest of Rachel's life, it'll come soon, not to worry! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven_. This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

It was about 11:00 PM when Finn got home later that week, much later than he usually stayed out on a Sunday when he had work the next morning. He didn't have anything going on that required he stay out so late but he found himself wanting to be out of his apartment for as long as possible lately.

Fortunately for him, Rachel didn't seem to ever leave the apartment and follow him elsewhere. In fact, she seemed to just disappear whenever they weren't within a certain distance of each other. He didn't know if she was able to leave the apartment, but he wasn't about to ask and give the idea for her to do so.

His place seemed to be empty when Finn walked in, letting him give a sigh of relief. But he didn't let his guard down. It was becoming a regular thing to turn the corner and have the brunette pop up in front of him out of nowhere. Usually he'd just walk right through her to make her annoyed, giving himself some personal enjoyment – hey, he was the one stuck in this never ending torture zone. Why not try to make some fun out of it?

Unfortunately, as every hour with Rachel constantly harping on him went by, it was becoming more and more difficult for Finn to make fun out of anything.

He decided to head straight for his bed hoping Rachel wouldn't want to show up if he was asleep. Even a girl as annoying as Rachel would have the sense to see spying on people while they were sleeping was creepy and stalker-ish, wouldn't she?

She _had_ done some pretty weird things in the past couple days though.

The whole personal space rule didn't seem to apply with Rachel. Wherever Finn was, Rachel would be there too, glued to his side, and talking to no end. The only exception to this would be when he was using the bathroom, though she did still stand right outside the door and ask him about his day. It was just messed up in so many ways.

He had to admit, she was getting pretty creative. The day before, while Finn was eating a bowl of cereal in the morning, he turned away to grab his coffee, but when he looked back, there was Rachel, cheery as could be, with her head poking out from under the kitchen table sitting in his breakfast.

He lost his appetite pretty quickly after that.

One thing he noticed about Rachel was that she wasn't afraid to embarrass herself at all. He had seen her do plenty of things that most girls wouldn't want any other human being to see. Her determination was admirable to him, and sometimes served as a good source of entertainment.

There had been a few instances that he couldn't help but be entertained by her, which annoyed her to no end. Rachel's only intentions whenever she spoke to him were to bother him, but sometimes, she did just the opposite. It was just too funny whenever she got really pissed at him, or whenever she overreacted because he put his feet on the coffee table.

But there was one incident the night before that had genuinely intrigued Finn, something Rachel had not meant to do.

He was in the middle of watching a big hockey game when she thought it would bother him immensely to stand right in front of the TV and sing at the top of her lungs. At first, he was upset, since it was a big hockey game after all, and he began groaning at her to cut it out. But something compelled him to stop arguing and listen to her.

Her voice was beautiful. It was filled with so much power and feeling that just wafted through the air and was capable of drawing anyone who heard it in toward her. She sang with so much emotion, not only in her voice, but also in her face and body movement. Her eyes shut when she sang the really high notes, getting lost in the wonderful music.

But she cut off short when she realized that Finn was no longer bickering at her but was…staring at her in…wonder. He was actually smiling. Finn could tell that was not what she had in mind.

"You're amazing." He told her. She moved her mouth, about to speak, but stopped herself, looking lost and confused in her thoughts. Finally, she spoke.

"I wasn't really expecting that." She whispered, almost inaudibly, sounding very shocked.

"No one's ever told you that you can sing?" Finn asked, puzzled by her response. A disoriented look was still spread across her face as she shook her head, and then swiftly walked off only to disappear right before his eyes. There had been no sight of her since then.

That was the only time Finn ever really got a hint of who Rachel was. She conveyed so much about herself through her singing – things _she_ didn't even seem to know.

As he lied on his bed, he couldn't help but think that the memory was a strange one, considering how differently it made him view her. Sure, she was annoying as hell, and seemed a little bit crazy, but she wasn't soulless. In the instant that she had sung for him, it seemed that she was… nice.

It didn't take long for him to fall asleep after that. Since Rachel wasn't around, it was a lot easier for him to relax and doze off. In fact, it was probably the most relaxing sleep he'd had since the break up.

But his sleep didn't last long.

"_No! Nobody don't nobody is gonna…rain on my pa-rade!"_

Finn's eyes snapped wide open as he shot right up from his peaceful slumber.

It was 3:00 in the morning, and there Rachel was, sitting right next to Finn on the bed, singing at the top of her lungs into his ear.

"Oh, good morning, Finn. I was just practicing my singing since you liked it so much last night." She batted her long brown eyelashes at him and smirked. "Sleep well?"

He didn't care how amazing her voice was. She was fucking dead – in more ways than one.

* * *

><p>"Hi Brittany, thanks for coming." Finn hesitantly ushered the blonde into his apartment, trying not to stare at the humongous cat in her arms too much so he wouldn't offend her… or her cat.<p>

"Oh, it's totally cool. I hope it's okay that I brought Lord Tubbington along. He's been dying to meet you." Brittany said, placing the cat on the ground. But he didn't seem all that interested in Finn as he just plopped down on the floor next to Brittany, licking his fur. "I think he's turned on by your apartment. That's so hot." Brittany said, bending down to pet her cat's back.

Finn tried to dismiss her unusual behavior and words. After all, he didn't invite Brittany over to hang out with – sure, she was hot, but he wasn't that desperate. He invited her over because she was his last hope.

Over the years, Finn had gained plenty of experience with cutting girls loose that he no longer wanted to go out with, and let's face it, he'd been let go his fair share of times before too, so he was pretty sure he knew what it took to get rid of someone. After meeting Rachel, he wasn't so sure.

In his defense, he didn't have any experience with dead girls. So, he decided he'd call up some people who did. But as it turns out, no one else was able to kick Rachel out either. He'd hired everything from Ghostbuster guys to priests to come and rid his apartment of her "spirit", as they liked to refer to it, but none of them had any effect on her whatsoever.

With every new person he brought in, Rachel happily watched them make a fool of themselves with their electronic devices and holy water, while laughing her head off. And why Finn was the only one who could see or hear her out of all of them he had no idea.

He was tired of hitting and missing, and Brittany was his last chance.

"Yeah, the cat's fine." Finn assured her while she stood up to stare at him. "So, Brittany, I was wondering if you could help me with something." Finn wanted to take it slowly so as not to confuse her, but she seemed to be following along alright. "I'm still having a problem with the…uh, spirit."

"What kind of problem?" Brittany asked.

"She's still here." Finn answered flatly. As if on cue, Rachel walked out of the kitchen to stand by Finn.

"You're praying on helpless girls now, Finn? What, are you planning on sacrificing her for my soul to be set free?" Rachel asked sarcastically, crossing her arms. Finn rolled his eyes at her and looked back to Brittany.

"Speak of the devil." Finn motioned to what appeared to be an empty spot to Brittany. He expected her to ask what he was talking about but instead she took a step closer to the place Finn motioned to and stopped in front of Rachel. "Can you see her?" Finn asked.

"No, but I can totally sense a presence. Yeah, I'm getting a ton of rainbow and star auras from this general area." Brittany said, tilting her head back and forth at the spot Rachel was standing in.

"I see you like them dumb, Finn. I can't say I'm surprised." Rachel laughed, walking past Brittany and looking her up and down.

"Shut up." Finn spat at her, but she just brushed him off.

"Whoah," Brittany began, turning around to face where Rachel had walked to. "She's like, really angry at you, Finn. Like an apostle or something."

At this, Rachel dropped her jaw, but Finn couldn't tell whether she was impressed or weirded out.

"You mean 'hostile'?" Finn offered. Brittany nodded her head and continued to scrutinize the empty space in front of her where Rachel stood.

"Yep. She seems dangerous, Finn. I think you should leave." She said matter-of-factly, turning back around to face him. Rachel let out a loud cackle and Finn's jaw dropped.

"I changed my mind Finn, I like this one! She's good." Rachel said in between laughs and circled back around Brittany to stand beside Finn.

"You have got to be kidding me." Finn ignored Rachel and continued with Brittany. "I'm not leaving because a controllist dead girl in _my_ apartment wants me to!" He shouted.

"I'm controlling, Finn. 'Controllist' isn't a word." Rachel corrected him.

Brittany just shrugged her shoulders and pursed her lips.

"Sorry, but I don't think she's going anywhere." Brittany began to walk closer to the pair, but stopped dead in her tracks a few feet away from Rachel, as if she hit an invisible force field. "Hold up." Brittany began to sniff the air around her to the bewilderment of both Finn and Rachel.

"What is she doing?" Rachel asked, beginning to back away, but Finn stopped her.

"Not sure, but I think she's onto something." He whispered back.

Finally, Brittany stopped sniffing the invisible Rachel and nodded her head. "Yep, I thought so." She said. "This girl's not dead."

"Ha!" Rachel shouted, turning toward Finn with a triumphant grin on her face. "See, I told you! I knew I wasn't dead!"

Finn couldn't believe what he was being told. Finally he found someone who could sense Rachel's presence, and she tells him that she's not dead? She walks through walls, damn it! How can she _not_ be dead?

"What? How would you know?" Finn questioned Brittany, not wanting to admit defeat.

"Look, Finn. I just know these things okay. Just accept it. This girl is alive somewhere out there." Brittany motioned toward where Rachel was standing, but then placed her hand on Finn's shoulder. "You know, you're giving off a terribly dark aura. It's like, darker than a black hole, and I've seen a lot of those, trust me." Brittany sniffed him a bit as well, but not for as long as she did with Rachel. "Oh, Finn. Let her go, okay. She's holding you back."

"I've tried to let her go, she won't fricking leave!" Finn shouted, turning toward Rachel. He would have said the full blown cuss word but something about cussing around Brittany didn't seem right to him.

"Not your invisible girl, Finn. The other one." Brittany said, poking Finn on the left side of his chest. "Look, it's been cool, but Lord Tubbington and I have to record an episode of Fondue for Two, the currently most watched web-show in North Korea and the South Pole." She grabbed her cat and headed out the door, leaving Finn and Rachel more than confused.

"Oh, wow." was all Finn could manage to say in response to Brittany's visit. Rachel, however, was stuck on a whole other subject.

"What other girl?" She asked, side stepping to stand in front of him.

He was hoping she wouldn't bring that up. That was the last thing he wanted to discuss with her. Maybe if he walked away he'd disappear from her vision – it worked the other way around, so it was worth a shot.

No such luck. She followed quickly behind him and pressed on. "Oh, I get it now. You were dumped! Ha! That's it! And your ego is too big to accept it! I just knew it! You are – "

"Would you just stop? You have no idea what happened." Finn answered her calmly, turning back to face her, his face full of sorrow. She stopped and scrutinized him, noticing how badly this was affecting him.

"Sorry," She offered in a whisper, her voice choking up. It seemed like she realized that she'd taken it too far and regretted it now. "Sometimes I don't even realize what I'm saying and I just can't stop spewing out insults. I don't why."

Finn nodded his head and sniffled. "Yeah, it's okay." He began to turn away but her voice stopped him.

"Wait!" She called after him, taking a few steps closer. "Talking about it might help." She said, almost in a whisper.

"Yeah, well, it's never really done much for me before." He scoffed.

"Just try." She half smiled at him, sitting on the couch and patting next to her for him to sit down. "You'll find that when I'm not talking, I'm a very good listener."

He couldn't help but laughing at her as she sat there, those brown eyes wide and staring at him hopefully, a cute little smile splayed across her lips.

Reluctantly, he sat down next to her and told her the whole story. How he met Quinn and instantly fell in love. How he thought she was going to be the one. How his life turned around when he suddenly became a father. How his world fell apart when he learned that he'd been lied to and he lost the love of his life and the baby he'd grown to love.

Surprisingly, Rachel _was_ an excellent listener. She wasn't one of those people that just took pity on others – she seemed to genuinely care about what Finn was saying to her, giving support when needed.

"It's a terrible thing she did to you, Finn." She said gently. He sighed and agreed with her, turning his head away. "But you're strong. I know you are. I mean, you've put up with me for this long." He laughed at her and nodded his head.

"Thanks. It's just… ever since then…I've just felt so…empty. Like there's something missing from my life." Finn gave a half smile to her.

"I know the feeling." She said, sighing while he looked at her, expectantly. "I feel like my whole entire life is missing. I've been trying to remember…anything. Anything from before I met you and I – I can't." She paused and looked him straight in the eyes. "It's like everything just disappeared. I don't know a thing about myself. I don't know who I am at all."

There was a long silence between the two of them, but it wasn't awkward. It was…nice actually. They both just looked at each other, thinking about how they had by chance been thrown into this situation that neither of them understood, trying to understand how two completely different people had the same void to fill.

"You certainly get how I feel sometimes." Finn sighed.

"Well, at least you're not alone. I'd like to at least know who I was." A single tear rolled down her cheek, and she quickly brushed it away.

"You mean who you are." He replied. She gave him a puzzled look, but he continued. "Brittany said you're alive. And even though she may not make any sense half the time, she certainly read into both of us well. I think she's right. If she is, then you'll remember eventually." Finn offered her another smile and stood up to go into his bedroom, but stopped before he could leave completely, looking back at her.

She stared blankly at the apartment, her hands nervously playing with the ends of her hair. Suddenly, a look of realization spread across her face.

"Wait! Finn!" She called to him. He hesitantly walked back to the couch so he was closer to her.

Oh no. She had that look on her face. That look that she always got before she did some new annoying thing to him to try to get him to leave the apartment. She was planning something that he already decided he wanted absolutely nothing to do with.

"Rachel, what are you – " he began hesitantly, but she cut him off.

"You can help me! Finn, don't you see? This is why I can't be anywhere that you aren't! This is why I'm here!" She rambled on, offering no explanation to him.

"What?"

"You're supposed to help me remember! That has to be it!" She was standing now, a beaming smile spreading across her face.

"Me? What – no! I don't even know you." Finn said, awfully confused.

"That's okay, I don't really know me either!" She spoke faster now, trying to get the message across as quickly as possible. "Look, Finn. We're both at a loss here. I can't leave and you don't want me here."

"I don't think I can help you." Finn said curtly, beginning to turn away.

"You've got two options Finn! You can either help me, a woman who has come into your life in an unexpected way, or you can refuse and keep having one-sided conversations with the air while I follow you around, everywhere. What'll it be?" Rachel stared him down, the look of innocence that she was giving to him on the couch completely gone.

Rachel was smart, way too smart for Finn. He knew by now that she would keep true to her word too – she was a head-strong and determined girl that for some reason could get whatever she wanted out of him.

He towered over her tiny figure while she stared up at him with a pleading smile on her face. How could someone so small be so powerful against him?

"Fine. I'll help you." He answered reluctantly, letting out a long sigh.

She screamed like a giddy little girl and hopped up and down clapping her hands. "Thank you, Finn! If I could hug you, I would!" She exclaimed, pure joy spread across her face, while she laughed.

For some reason, he couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of her. Damn her and her adorable contagious laughs!

This girl who was barely 5 feet tall, tiny as can be, that had the biggest brown eyes and the sweetest smile had managed to take down the 6'3 giant that is Finn Hudson. He knew all this, and yet he was still smiling at her. He'd never felt so pathetic in his entire life.

Finn Hudson had a weakness. And unfortunately, she knew it.

What the hell did he just get himself into?

* * *

><p><strong>Next chapter begins the hunt to remember Rachel's life! We'll be meeting a lot of characters that we know and love:)<strong>

**Thanks for reading, and please review!**

**-Goldstarrach**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello all! This chapter is the longest one yet, and there's certainly a lot going on! This is told more with Rachel's POV than Finn's because it's neccessary to be seeing her inner thoughts right now. Please read and review! -Goldstarrach**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven_ or _Spring Awakening_ (which is mentioned). This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

"Let's go, Finn! I can't exactly do this without you!" Rachel called to Finn from outside his bathroom door about ten minutes after the shower shut off. After their conversation yesterday, she hadn't been following him around as often, trying not to annoy him as much. They'd still butted heads a few times, but neither was really working to get rid of the other.

"Yeah, I'm coming! I'm just… doing stuff. " He answered her. Just doing stuff? What was taking him so long? He finished showering a while ago and he was a guy – they weren't supposed to take a long time in the bathroom! He'd been in there for about 30 minutes. And sadly for her, she had to stay glued to the door of the bathroom if she didn't want to disappear. For some reason, whenever she wasn't near him, it was like she didn't exist. So she stayed by his side whenever she could.

Another five minutes went by and her patience was quickly fading. If they didn't start asking around about her in the building soon, people would leave for their jobs before they had the chance. Luckily, Finn was given off from work for the week while the hotel he worked in was being remodeled. But other people had their jobs to get to, and Finn was cutting time short.

That's it, she was going in. She reached for the door knob until she realized she could go straight on through.

"Finn, you're taking forever, we need to go befo – " Her speech cut off abruptly once she saw him standing at the sink, staring back at her with a surprised expression. "Oh, sorry." She wished that she could disappear on her own will.

He stood before her shirtless in his boxers, his face turning bright red. Though it probably would have been better if she had turned right around and left the room, she was finding it difficult to take her eyes away from his bare chest. Her expression made her appear embarrassed – which she was – but she was also intrigued by seeing Finn like this.

Though she couldn't remember if she had ever had any serious relationships for sure in the past, she had a feeling that this was the first time she had been alone with a shirtless man. It was interesting for her, to see him in that way. It made her pulse race and caused color to rush to her face, and she had an urge to move closer to him to just trace the contours of his muscles, inspect the smoothness of his skin. She began to smile out of curiosity but quickly stopped when she saw Finn looking very uncomfortable.

"What?" Finn asked her, quickly grabbing his jeans and sliding them on, folding his arms over his bare chest. He was trying to play it cool, and she could tell.

"Uh, nothing. Are you ready?" She averted her eyes from him now, allowing him to get fully dressed, trying to hide her curiosity and interest. Finn nodded and a few minutes later, they were standing in their floor's hallway, determining what their first move in learning about Rachel should be.

"Who should we ask about you?" Finn wondered.

"Hmm… let's try the people around my apartment. They're the ones who were most likely to see me when I was here." She concluded.

They began their search with the apartment directly across from the one they inhabited, having no idea what to expect. Finn knocked on the door of the place, but found that it wasn't even closed, causing it to open and reveal part of the space within.

The apartment seemed to be trashed even more than Rachel's was in the time when Finn had refused to clean up. Empty wine bottles sat on the floor and coffee table, as well as various articles of clothing resting on items of furniture. Rachel also noted a black polka-dotted pink bra dangling off of a hanging light in the main hallway.

"There's no way I was friends with whoever lives here." She said shocked by the apartment's disorder.

"Well, you never know." He replied. "Hello? Anyone home?" Finn called into the apartment. There was no answer.

"Let's just go, Finn. There are plenty of other people we could ask." Rachel said, motioning for him to follow her down the hallway, but the seductive voice of someone at the door stopped her.

"Why, hello there." An attractive Latina girl stood in the doorway of the messy apartment wearing a very tight fitting black dress and red pumps, more fit for clubbing than sitting in an apartment.

Finn's eyes went wide when she revealed herself to him, a half smile playing on his lips. "Oh, uh, hi." He replied, seeming to be at a loss for words. Rachel stared at him, dumb founded, as he looked the girl up and down.

"You've got to be kidding me." Rachel said to him. "Are you seriously that attracted to her that you've completely lost the minimal capability of speech you already had?" He gave her a look telling her to be quiet and continued listening the woman.

"You're the new guy, huh?" She asked, placing her arm above her on the door frame.

"Yeah, I'm Finn. You are?"

"Santana." She looked him up and down and bit her lip. "You know, you seem like a strong guy. I've been having some trouble moving some of the furniture in my place to my liking. Do you think, maybe you could help?" Santana asked, lifting her eyebrows. Finn's mouth opened once again, but no words came out.

"Oh, my God. She just wants to sleep with you! How can you find this hot?" Rachel scoffed, completely disgusted. She hadn't known Finn for very long, but she didn't think he would have a thing for loose women. Of course Santana could hear none of this, so her gaze never left Finn.

"I'm kind of in a hurry actually…" Finn insisted, looking over to Rachel, bracing himself for her angry expression.

"Oh, it won't take long if that's what you want." Santana replied, batting her long eyelashes at him. Rachel had already lost her patience with this one, so she reminded Finn what they were there for in the first place, and he got back on track.

"No, I just had a question. Did you know the woman who lived in this apartment?" He said, motioning to his place behind him. Santana looked up, appearing to be deep in thought.

"Not really." She began. "I mean, I saw her every now and then, walking into her place, but she mostly seemed to keep to herself. She was always singing something too." Rachel nodded in response to Santana's words. Those things weren't too bad. It seemed like people may have liked her. "But most of the time she dressed like one of the bait girls on _To Catch a Predator_. Like seriously, she looked like Pippi Longstocking but, Israeli." Rachel's jaw dropped in response.

Though she had no idea what her other clothes generally looked like, Rachel liked the outfit she was wearing now. Sure, most people didn't wear leg warmers, but she had a strange liking for them. And her dress was adorable! Who was this Santana girl, anyway?

Finn tried to stifle a laugh, but not before Rachel could hear it. She rolled her eyes at him and he quickly tried to regain his composure. "Okay, thanks, Santana. But I better go, so…" He gave her a wave and she began to shut the door.

"Come back anytime." The girl winked and shut the apartment door behind her.

Rachel could not believe this. She was infuriated! How could someone that knew pretty much nothing about her say such rude things? And how could Finn possibly think that she was attractive?

"I cannot believe you." Rachel said to Finn, heading down the hallway.

"Me? She was the one throwing herself at me. I mean, yeah, she's hot and all but – " He stopped in the middle of his speech. "Wait," He continued. "Do I sense a bit of jealousy?" He playfully asked. She abruptly turned around, a look of extreme annoyance set on her features.

"Jealous? Of that… _thing_? Seriously, Finn you need to work on suppressing that ego of yours. Contrary to your beliefs, it's not all about you." She snapped back, continuing to walk the other direction. Was he seriously suggesting that she was jealous of that… that… slut?

"Whatever you say." He replied, the satisfaction in his voice setting her teeth on edge.

This was going to be a fun day.

* * *

><p>Just as Rachel had suspected, it was terrible.<p>

Neither of them were able to gather much of anything about Rachel after their asking around the building earlier that day other than the fact that she'd received many complaints for singing too loudly in the early morning and that she may or may not have been a cat lady. Most of the people had no idea who Rachel even was, and if they did, they only knew what she looked like and how she dressed, and hearing what people thought about those two categories didn't do anything for Rachel's already hurt self esteem. Everyone either had no earthly clue who she was or they hated her.

The pair decided it would be best to return to the apartment to see if there were any clues as to what kind of person Rachel was, since no human beings seemed to have a shred of an idea.

"Learn anything new about yourself?" Finn asked, while he looked through different drawers in the kitchen, trying to find receipts for purchases she may have made. Rachel thought it may give them some idea of what she was like.

"Hmm, I guess I learned that I liked to sing and that I'm a social recluse." She sighed, continuing to look at the receipts Finn set out on the table for her.

"Oh, that's not true." He offered, hopping up on the counter next to the things she was inspecting. "There's probably a really good reason why you're never really talking to people in this building. Maybe you're never here during the day. You know, you're bound to know someone in this city. I doubt you could go all day without talking to anyone. And obviously someone has heard you sing. They'd have no choice but to talk to you to tell you you're super talented." He said. She stopped reading the receipts momentarily and looked up at him, flashing him a quick smile.

"Thanks, Finn. For doing all this." He gave her a half smile in response and reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, but stopped himself. That had to have been one of the worse parts of her situation – she couldn't touch or be touched. She couldn't feel anything.

"I'm not finding much of anything in these drawers, so let's look at the bookshelf in the main room." He suggested. She nodded, trying to conceal her disappointment in having to deny his touch. She didn't know if she could handle anything like that much longer.

Tons of books lined the walls of the shelves that stood by the television in the main room. They seemed like they may have just been for decoration, but there was bound to be something that had personally belonged to Rachel.

Book after book was pulled from the shelf, Finn inspecting each title and calling it out to her. So far they'd found a lot of classics that anyone could have owned, not anything very specific to hint at anything about her. She wished desperately that she could help him out, since he didn't seem to have much interest in it, but because of her not being able to touch anything, she was forced to supervise.

After a while, Finn stopped calling out the names of book titles to Rachel, and she grew very bored, sitting on the ground next to him, her head in her hands. She was about to doze off when he spoke up.

"What's this?" He said, holding a pink binder in his hands. It looked pretty promising to Rachel, considering it wasn't just a book like all of the others, but something that she may have used personally.

"Not sure," She replied, inspecting it carefully. "Open it up and read something from it."

Following her instructions, Finn opened up the binder, flipping through the first few pages. "It looks like a script of some kind." He said, reading over the page. A script? Why would she own a script?

"Like a movie script?" She asked, genuinely intrigued.

"No, more like a play. The characters have some weird names though. I can't even pronounce half of them." Finn said, straining to make out the words on the page.

"Well, read some of it." Rachel insisted, sitting up straight, ready to listen.

"Uh, okay." Finn cleared his throat, flipping some pages in, and then he began to read. "_Goodness, look at you – in that… that kindergarten dress! Wendla, grown-up girls cannot be strutting about in such – _"

"_Let me wear this one, Mama! I love this one. It makes me feel like a little… faerie-queen._" Rachel interrupted Finn right on cue in the script, reading the next line word for word. Finn had a look of absolute shock on his face.

"How did you know what the next line was?" Finn said, lowering the script for her to see. Sure enough, she had spoken the line next to the name "WENDLA" perfectly.

"I – I don't know." She replied, also in complete shock. How _had_ she known that? It was as if the words were there in the back of her mind and just popped up whenever she was given the right cue. "Is there anything that says what the play is called?" He flipped to the very first page.

"_Spring Awakening_: A New Musical." Finn read off the page. "Hey, I've heard of this! It was on Broadway a while ago, and I think they just brought it back to Broadway really recently." Rachel was speechless. "Rachel, I think this is your script. I think you're in this musical." He said. She was too lost in her thoughts to respond.

The title sounded so familiar to her, and the lines seemed to be implanted in her memory, but she just couldn't remember anything else about it. Could she have possibly been an actress? Could she have been a _Broadway_ actress? "Finn, get on the computer in the bedroom. There has to be something about this online somewhere."

The two quickly headed to the computer and searched the name of the musical on the internet. Finn had been correct. The show was on Broadway about 9 years before then, but was recently being revived in New York City. They couldn't find anything mentioning anyone named Rachel though.

"Look, there!" Finn said, pointing to the screen. "It says it's currently located in the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. That's not too far from here." He said, giving her a hopeful smile.

She didn't know what to say. This musical may have held all the answers to her questions! So why did she feel so hesitant about it? "I don't know Finn. What if I wasn't even in the show but just liked to read random scripts? Even if I was in the show, it was probably forever ago and – " He cut her off before she could continue her rambling.

"Rachel, this is your chance. It's the best we've got, and it seems like it would fit you just right. I mean, you're an amazing singer and you knew the lines to that script!" She sighed and nodded her head. "Come on, we're going to the subway." He stood up but she hesitated.

She was scared. Scared that she may find out something about herself that she didn't want to know. And he knew it. "You've got nothing to lose, Rach." He offered.

"And everything to gain." She agreed. "Alright, let's go!"

* * *

><p>People began flooding the sidewalk in front of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, everyone buzzing about the show they just saw. It looked like the matinee for that day had just let out – the perfect time to go in and talk to the people who worked there to see if they knew anything about Rachel. They looked up at the shining marquee that had three sides all reading SPRING AWAKENING in bold black letters, protruding from the wall above the main entrance. Rachel couldn't believe that she may actually have been in this show.<p>

"Let's go now while the cast and crew are probably still here." Rachel suggested, leading Finn through the mobs of people, which was difficult considering no one could see her, and they often just walked right through her. She would have been offended, but they probably would have run into her anyways – it _was _New York City after all.

"What's our next move?" Finn asked once they had made it inside of the theatre lobby.

"Not sure." Rachel replied. She didn't see anyone around her that she recognized at all. She would have gone backstage on her own to see if there was anything familiar back there, but if she tried to leave Finn's side, she'd just disappear. There had to be some way that they would let Finn backstage.

The lobby was almost completely cleared out now, with only a few people remaining purchasing merchandise for the show, while Rachel and Finn stood in the very center of the room, looking around for some answers.

"Does this place seem familiar?" Finn asked her.

"A little bit, but something tells me that if I _was_ on this show, it wouldn't have been here. Maybe I never made it to Broadway." She wondered. It suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea how long she'd been stuck in this limbo-like world of disappearing and wearing the same clothes all the time. For all she knew, it could have been years. Time seemed to just run together for her.

While formulating a plan to try to sneak Finn backstage – which she was finding difficult to think of anything at all since he was super tall – someone in the corner of her eye stopped her. When she got a good look at the man, her eyes widened. She knew this man! She recognized him!

"Will!" She shouted to him, until she realized he would not be able to hear. He was standing by the merchandise table, talking to a few of the employees at the theatre.

"Will?"

"Yes! That man over there with the curly hair! I know him." She pointed in his direction. "He was my director for this show! You were right, Finn, I remember now, I was in this show! Will was the one who told me that it was moving back on Broadway." She explained, nodding her head up and down now. She was positive that it was her director standing before her and that she had played Wendla in this play. But for some reason, a lot of the other details were very foggy.

Will turned his head toward Finn now, a curious expression spreading across his face. They had forgotten that to everyone else it looked like Finn was standing alone, talking to himself in the theatre. The man began to make his way toward Finn.

"Rachel, he's coming over here." Finn whispered through gritted teeth, trying not to look like he was talking to himself.

"Don't be nervous, Will's an awesome guy. I'll tell you what to say, just don't look at me when he's here." She advised. Finn still looked a little nervous, but it was too late for him to back out because Will stood in front of him now, staring him down

"Can I help you with anything?" The man asked while Finn racked his brain for what to say.

"Uh, yeah, actually. I…" Finn's sentence trailed off.

"Tell him you saw the show and really liked it. He'll appreciate that." Rachel suggested.

"The show was amazing, I really enjoyed it." Finn said, offering a smile to Will. He was very grateful for Finn's praise, but he continued to stand near him, like he knew Finn was up to something. Finn had to be on his toes in this conversation, so he began with the first thing he could think of. "I saw the show when it was off-Broadway too back in February, and I was just wondering, was there a change in the lead actress's role?"

"Nice, that's good, Finn, keep going." Rachel encouraged him.

"Yes, actually, the actress from those past shows is still a part of our cast, but she's taken an indefinite leave from the production." Will replied, his expression losing some of the excitement it contained earlier.

"An indefinite leave?" Finn continued. "Where'd she go?" Will pursed his lips at Finn's question and Rachel could tell he felt a bit uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry, did you know her?" Will asked, curiosity spread on his face. Rachel knew Will wouldn't tell Finn anything unless he thought they were involved in some way or another. So she told Finn to say that he was her boyfriend.

"We were boyfriend and girlfriend. It was a pretty serious relationship." Finn told Will, hoping he'd not sense his nervousness.

"Oh!" Will replied, seeming a bit shocked. "I didn't know she had a boyfriend. She was always so busy that I just assumed she didn't" Will told him. Finn forced a laugh in response.

"Yeah, that sounds like Rachel. She is a busy-bee." Busy-bee? What was Finn doing?

"So, no one told you?" Will asked, his serious tone sending Goosebumps to Rachel's skin.

"Told me what?" Finn replied cautiously.

"About the accident."

Suddenly, Rachel's mind was filled with images of rain pouring down, bright lights speeding toward her, and a huge impact causing her vision to go blank.

She remembered now. She remembered everything. The memories all came back to her in an instant, filling her mind with the life she had left behind. She knew who she was now. But where was she?

Will told Finn of the terrible car accident that Rachel had gotten into on a stormy night in late March. A truck driving in the wrong lane had run into her car going 40 miles per hour, head on. People thought she was dead at the scene, but paramedics confirmed that she was unconscious. She had been rushed to the hospital and everything that could be done to wake her up was tried, but there had been no success.

"Rachel's been comatose for the past 14 weeks." Will finished the explanation, bowing his head, unable to look Finn in the eye. A single tear rolled down his cheek and he swiftly wiped it away with the corner of his sleeve.

Both Finn and Rachel were speechless. They had no idea what to expect, but there was nothing they could have done to prepare themselves for that shock.

Rachel suddenly remembered the rest of her friends and cast mates that were probably still in the theatre. Tina, Mercedes, Jesse, Kurt. Kurt!

"Tell him you want to speak with Kurt. Say you two are old friends or something." Rachel suggested, not bothering to explain anything to Finn.

"Would it be a problem if I talked to Kurt?" Finn choked out, his eyes beginning to water. Finn was good at faking this stuff, that was for sure. "He's an old friend." Will seemed a little suspicious of Finn's motives, but agreed to let him go backstage to speak with Kurt. He didn't want to pester Finn, who seemed like he was on the verge of bursting out crying. Rachel was surprised that he didn't do acting – he seemed very convincing.

Will led them all the way to the backstage door and explained where to go from there to find everyone before he left to talk with the sound and light guys. The two made their way alone through the backstage halls. Many voices talking and laughing could be heard down the hallway, all coming from the same room.

"I guess we should go down there." Finn said, trying to hear the voices down the hall. Rachel agreed and continued walking in that direction until something stopped her.

She treaded back a few steps and stopped to look into the dressing room of Sunshine Corazon. While the rest of the cast was all together, laughing and talking, Sunshine was alone, sitting on her chair, her eyes red and puffy. She wore the blue frock just like the one that Rachel recalled wearing in her shows every night. Sunshine was originally Rachel's understudy for the lead role.

"What is it?" Finn asked, looking back at Rachel while she peered into the dressing room.

"My understudy. Well, I guess I'm _her_ understudy now." Rachel sighed, but continued to lead Finn down the hallway to the room the voices came from.

Inside, Rachel saw many of her cast mates and friends dressed in their show attire, the girls in various colored frocks and the boys in their tight navy pants and suspenders. They all sat around the room, probably waiting around for their evening performance. Seeing all the familiar faces made her so happy. There was Mike, Tina, Mercedes, Artie, and Kurt. Even seeing Jesse made her excited, which was a rare thing.

Rachel finally allowed Finn to walk in, telling him to ask Kurt if he could speak with him.

"Uh, hi, sorry to interrupt." Finn began, trying to get the attention of everyone in the backstage lounge.

"Who are you?" Tina asked politely, the rest of the cast still not really paying him any mind, still talking and laughing.

"Oh, I'm Finn. I was wondering if I could talk to Kurt." Rachel pointed at which one was Kurt and Finn turned his gaze to him.

"Do I know you?" Kurt asked with a confused look on his face.

"Um, no. But Rachel knew me." With Finn's words, everyone stopped talking and put their full attention on Finn. Their eyes all widened, and Tina burst into tears.

"Rachel? Rachel Berry?" Kurt asked. Finn looked to her and she nodded, confirming that was her.

Finn nodded and Kurt excused himself from the room, leading Finn out into the hallway.

"How did you know each other?" Kurt questioned him, suspicion all over his features.

"I was her boyfriend." Finn answered flatly.

"Rachel didn't have a boyfriend." Kurt shot back at him. Shoot. Rachel had a feeling Kurt wouldn't buy that one – she told him everything, and he knew very well that she was hopelessly single.

"She didn't want anyone to know about us." Finn continued, hoping Rachel would help him out.

"Tell him that's why I didn't want to go out on the blind dates he set up for me." She suggested, hoping it would work.

"We were together, I swear. That's why she always refused the dates you set up for her, because she already had me." Finn said rather convincingly.

Kurt still looked rather confused but just shrugged it off. "Okay, whatever. Why did you want to talk to me?" Kurt asked him.

"I was just wondering…" Finn began until Rachel directed him on what to say. "Why isn't anyone in the hospital with Rachel?"

Kurt gave him a weird look, but finally answered his question. "You can't expect us to be there with her every day for 14 weeks straight. I'm up there whenever I get a chance, but Rachel wouldn't have wanted me hold onto her forever. She would have wanted me to stay devoted to this show." He said, his eyes beginning to fill with tears. "We've been going to see her more often, the cast and I. Considering it may be the end soon." He was completely choked up now, not trying to suppress his tears.

"What do you mean, Kurt? Ask him what he means!" Rachel screamed, tears beginning to come to her eyes.

"The end? Her condition isn't improving?" Finn asked frantically. Kurt struggled to get any words out.

"It gets worse every day."

"Well, they can't do anything about it? You're just giving up?" Finn was beginning to sound angry now.

"They've done everything they can! Look, I don't know who the hell you are, but you have no business coming in here and yelling at me about my best friend who may die within a matter of days! I've tried to convince her Dads they're wrong to be even thinking about pulling the plug, I have! Rachel is the most determined girl I know and I used to think she could pull through this, too okay! So don't you _dare_ say we're giving up on her! You have no idea what hell I've been through! What hell we've all been through!" Kurt was shouting at him, tears pouring down his cheeks.

Finn had no idea what to say. "I'm so sorry." was all he could manage to get out.

They left the theatre right away. While Finn was trying to take in everything he had heard, Rachel was completely silent. Her thoughts were stuck on one thing, and one thing only.

They were thinking about pulling the plug.

* * *

><p><strong>I know that was a lot to take in. Next chapter Finn and Rachel will be visiting Rachel's body in the hospital. <strong>

**Did you all like Rachel's POV? I found it a lot more difficult to write than Finn's. Maybe because he has much simpler thoughts;) Just a note, I love Santana, I just had to make her seem terrible for this story. Hope you all are enjoying this! I think we have about 4 chapters left!**

**Read and Review!**

**-Goldstarrach**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry that the wait was a bit longer than usual! Chapter six! We've come so far! This is partly following Rachel's POV as well as Finn's. The pair seems to be growing on each other, don't they? Thanks for the great reviews, and please send more my way:) I really appreaciate them!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven_ or _Spring Awakening_ (which is mentioned). This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

As a teenager, Rachel had a habit of fantasizing about her own funeral. It sounded bad and a little bit insane, which Kurt had never failed to inform her of, but she couldn't help it. Having been teased so much and underappreciated by her fellow classmates, she couldn't help but wonder if they would care if she were gone. She imagined in detail the heart-felt speeches of regret that every one that was ever rude to her would give, each of them wishing they hadn't wronged her. So, maybe it was a little weird to think about her death, but she had to admit that she found it very intriguing.

Now, staring at her lifeless-seeming body in front of her, the idea of her own death was quite the opposite of intriguing. Seeing herself in this way made the prospect of death seem more realistic than it ever had before. And it was certainly not something to fantasize about.

She had seen enough grieving over her in the past day for a lifetime. Watching Kurt breakdown like he had in front of Finn earlier that day had managed to break her heart, not to mention the depressed expressions each of her cast mates had worn when they simply heard her name. Even Finn seemed genuinely upset because of her condition, though she wasn't entirely sure if he was just pretending to convince people of their supposed relationship or not.

But even now, when the two of them were alone in a depressing hospital room, with no one around to convince of anything, he looked shocked and upset, like he'd just been punched in the gut for no reason whatsoever.

For a while, they were both speechless. What do you say when you see your own body, hooked up to various machines with tubes crawling up and down your arms, with no color in your cheeks, no smile on your lips, not a note of your own voice escaping into the air? Rachel had no idea.

The normally bland appearance of the hospital room had been brightened up by various items obviously brought in by Rachel's friends and family. There were several pictures of her and her Dads on many vacations, some of her holding trophies for winning a singing or dancing competition, and a few with her _Spring Awakening_ co-stars out and about in New York City. Among them was the picture that had been missing from her bedside table back home – it was her and Kurt running through Central Park wearing their _Spring Awakening_ costumes, looking very out of place with the other New Yorkers.

"What's that of?" Finn asked, noticing the picture Rachel was gazing at.

"This was a little after Kurt and I had been cast in the show. That day we had our first dress rehearsal, and some of the cast decided we'd sneak out and walk around the city in our 19th century school-children get ups." She giggled, remembering the events of that day. "People were so confused when they saw all of us walking together down the streets, but we all decided that we'd stay in character as much as we could and act like nothing was out of sorts. It was a great day. Of course we all got into a bit of trouble with Will, but he couldn't deny that it was a funny idea. It also advertised our show pretty well, though we didn't intend on that happening." She paused for a second, nostalgia taking over her.

"You look so happy." Finn noted, smiling at the photo.

"I was. That day, I just felt so… alive, you know? Like nothing else in the world mattered." She let out a sigh but turned to face him quickly. "Look at me. That day was only nine months ago and the way I talk about it you'd think it happened in another lifetime."

"Why's that?" He asked.

"I don't know. I guess because it feels so distant now. I mean, do you see me?" She motioned to her body lying on the hospital bed. "It's not looking like I'll ever feel alive anytime soon." Finn shook his head in response.

"Don't say that. Don't tell me you're giving up too." He said dejectedly.

"Finn." She sighed. "My brain activity is decreasing every day."

"Well, maybe that's not so bad. I mean, you're like, super smart. Maybe it'll put you down to my level." Finn gave her a half smile, but she remained serious.

"You're not dumb, Finn. You're just a bit lazy. Cute, but lazy." She finally returned the smile and just stared at him.

"Thanks." He replied, getting lost in those big brown eyes of hers. "Rachel, I think you'll pull through this. I mean, you look… nice. There are no scars or anything." He walked over to her body and took her limp hand in his. "Your skin is smooth too."

Rachel felt a feeling of warmth on the palm of her hand, a tingling sensation that someone else's warmth was close to hers. "Wait, Finn." Rachel began. Finn dropped his hand from her body and looked to her expectantly. "When you held my body's hand, I felt it. I don't know why, but I did." She shook her head in disbelief. They tried it again once more, this time with her back facing him while he touched her body's cheek.

"I can feel your palm on my cheek, Finn. I can feel your warmth!" She exclaimed.

"You know, I think this means something." Finn said, walking closer to her. "I think it means you're going to wake up. I mean, you're obviously still very connected to your body. Maybe you'll somehow come back together with it." He suggested. They stood side by side, staring at the tiny girl in the bed, now at a loss for words.

Just then, a nurse from the hospital walked in, interrupting their silence. "I'm sorry, Mr. Hudson, but Rachel has some other visitors."

"Okay. Can I have another minute to say goodbye?" Finn asked. The nurse nodded her head solemnly and left them alone once again.

"You should go, Finn. I think I want to stay here. I think that as long as I'm with my body, I won't disappear." Rachel told him.

"Do you want me to wait in the lobby for you?" He asked, his voice sounding hopeful.

"That's sweet, but I don't think I'll be coming back to the apartment." Rachel said to Finn's obvious disappointment.

"But it's your apartment." Finn argued.

"I know, but now that I'm here with my body, I don't think I should leave it. I don't want to forget everything again." She looked back up to his eyes.

"Yeah, I get it." He said, though he still seemed a bit hurt. "It just seems weird to leave you here. I mean, since you are usually right by my side 24 hours a day." They both laughed.

"Thank you for everything, Finn." She smiled at him. "I'd hug you right now if I could."

"It was my pleasure." He returned the smile, unable to look away from her eyes. "You know, if I could, I'd ki –" Finn's sentence was cut off when the nurse popped in again.

"Mr. Hudson, I'm sorry." She said.

"It's alright." Finn walked toward the door, but turned back to look at Rachel for one final time. "Goodbye, Rachel."

"Goodbye, Finn."

And with that, he was gone.

And for some reason, though she remembered who she was and had her life back, she had never felt as empty as she had now.

* * *

><p>Soon after Finn left, her Dads walked into the room, a pink teddy bear and some flowers in their hands. They looked terrible, so overcome with distress and grief. She hated to see the people she loved like this, and she couldn't help but think it was all her fault.<p>

When was the last time she had seen her Dads? It had to have been last winter before she was cast in _Spring Awakening_. Ever since she moved to New York for college, she barely ever went home except on breaks, and after being cast in her show, she barely even made time to call them. Now she felt terribly for doing so, since the only way they saw her now was lifeless on a hospital bed.

"Hi baby." Leroy said, placing the pink bear on the already cluttered bedside table next to many other cards and presents.

"It's good to see you." Hiram said. Both of them held her hands, one on each side of the bed. This was weird – Rachel felt Finn's touch on her hands but she couldn't feel her own fathers'?

They sat just like that for a few minutes, just holding onto their daughter's hands and sobbing every now and then. It was killing Rachel to see them like this. She just wanted to hug both of them and tell them that everything was going to be alright, but she had no idea if it would be.

Suddenly, Hiram let go of her hand and stared at his husband. "Leroy, we can't do this anymore." He said, shutting his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"What do you mean?" Leroy asked.

"I mean that we can't hold onto her like this anymore." Hiram said in a whisper. Leroy was at first shocked but he regained his composure, closing his eyes and slowly reopening them.

"I know. She wouldn't have wanted this. She wouldn't have wanted to have us all cooped up in here like this all the time." Leroy agreed with his husband.

"She also wouldn't have wanted to be in this room for this long." Hiram continued. "I mean, this place is way too dull and drab for our Rachel. She simply wouldn't have put up with it." Why did they keep talking about her in the past tense? They wouldn't…would they?

"The doctor said her condition is getting worse. A coma for 14 weeks? That's a consistent coma." Leroy said, shaking his head. Hiram walked over to his husband and took his hand, pulling him into an embrace.

"I think we need to let her go. It's what she would have wanted." Hiram said with his voice choked up. Leroy simply nodded and burst into tears. "I'll tell the doctor to do it in 2 days at noon. It'll give us enough time to let everyone know, so they can come say their goodbyes."

Then Rachel realized - they _would_ do it if they thought that it was what's best for her. And they did.

"No. Dad. Daddy." Rachel choked out, looking to the both of them. "You can't. I'm still here! I'm still here!" She screamed at them, but of course no one could hear. She watched them, completely oblivious to her pleading, as they cried together, holding their daughter's hand.

She couldn't watch this any longer. She had to tell someone. She had to tell Finn.

* * *

><p>Finn sat alone in his apartment, watching sports on TV and drinking a couple beers. He was doing things as he usually had for months. On the exterior, things looked more normal than they ever had in the past week. But he just felt so… alone. Every now and then while sitting on the couch, he'd look to his right to tell Rachel something funny, until he realized that she wouldn't be there. He didn't know why that bothered him so much – she'd found her body, she remembered who she was, his job was done.<p>

But it still didn't feel okay. It didn't feel like his job was done, whatever his job was. He needed to see her, but he knew that wasn't possible. She'd moved on. He couldn't have anything to do with Rachel Berry again. Accepting that made life seem… pretty shitty.

It took all of his concentration to not think about Rachel. He was trying to let her go, but was finding it harder with every minute that passed by. Turned out that trying to concentrate on not thinking about someone made you think about that someone a lot. Ugh, he was screwed.

About an hour later, there was a knock on his apartment door. He got excited for a second, thinking that it may be Rachel, but realized she would have just popped in out of nowhere if she were coming back. Someone else was at the door. Puck maybe? No, Puck wouldn't just knock, he'd probably start shouting random cuss words and ordering him to get his ass out of the door. Who was it then?

"I got locked out." It was Santana, the girl from across the hall, who had knocked on his door. She stood in front of him, wearing a very revealing tank top and _very_ short shorts. Finn's eyes went wide when he saw her – he certainly didn't intend on running into her again.

"Oh, uh, that sucks." Finn replied, trying to block the doorway so she wouldn't try to come in. He honestly wanted nothing to do with anyone else right now, especially another woman, even if that woman was super hot and extremely available. She stared at him with wide eyes, a seductive grin spreading across her face.

"So, Finn, right? Are you going to invite me in, or are you gonna be an ass like every other guy in this city?" Before he could answer, she pushed right past him into his apartment. "Nice place, but it's a little too orderly for my liking. I like things a little… dirty every now and then." She bit her lip and sashayed about his main room.

"Can I get you anything?" Finn asked, annoyed by her intrusion.

"Can I get _you_ anything?" She asked, walking closer to him. Finn just gave her a confused look. "Oh, don't play the Finnocence card on me. Look, I hear you talking to no one in here all the time. I know you're lonely. I just want to offer you my services. I'm lonely too, you know." She lifted her hand to his shirt and played with his collar.

"I'm not interested." Finn said, taking a few steps back. Did this girl not know how to take a hint?

"Yet." Santana replied, licking her lips. "But that's okay. Can I use your bathroom? I needs to pencil my eyebrows on." Finn nodded hesitantly and showed her where the restroom was down the hall.

He decided he'd kick her right out when she got out of the bathroom. Some guys were into girls like her, but she was far too pushy for Finn and… sort of trashy. Everything about her seemed fake too. Her hair, her voice, multiple parts of her body. He liked girls that were natural, not a lot of makeup, not a lot of tight fitting clothing. Now that he thought about, Rachel seemed to fit that criteria perfectly. She was the most real person he had ever met.

"Finn?" He could recognize that voice anywhere, and it certainly did not belong to Santana.

He turned around quickly to face her, shock written all over his face. "Rachel! You're here!" He looked overjoyed to see her.

"Yeah." She replied calmly, not making eye contact with him.

"Well, I just thought you said you weren't ever coming back. Are you okay?" He asked her, taking a step closer.

"That's why I came. There's something I – "

"Finnnnnn! Come here, I want you to see something!" Oh shit. Finn had completely forgotten about Santana when he saw Rachel. He had to get rid of her before Rachel got the wrong idea.

"Who's that?" Rachel asked, her voice sounded curious, but Finn also noticed it seemed a bit hurt.

"No one. Just someone who got locked out who wanted to use the restroom." He said, speaking softly so Santana wouldn't hear him.

"Finn? I wants you here and I wants you now!" Santana called from what sounded like the bedroom. Was it impossible for her to shut up?

Finn watched Rachel nervously while realization spread over her face. "Oh." She said, trying to mask her hurt. "Um, wow. That was fast." Rachel gave him a confused look and backed away a few steps.

"No, Rachel, you don't understand! She threw herself at me! I was trying to get her to leave but she wouldn't - "

"No, I understand." She cut him off, nodding her head and refusing to look him in the eye.

"No, you don't. Trust me, Rachel, I was going to have her leave right after she used the bathroom." He tried to explain.

"Something tells me she had bigger plans than using the bathroom." Rachel said, walking in the direction of Santana's voice. "Yeah, she's not in your bathroom" She looked in the bedroom and quickly whipped her head away.

"I swear, I had no idea, Rachel." Finn was becoming very frantic now.

"Are you talking to someone?" Santana asked from the other room. He could hear her standing up now, as she made her way out to stand in front of him, wearing only very red and lacy lingerie. "There you go talking to yourself again. Why don't you come talk to me in the bedroom?" Finn tried to push her away.

"Just do it, Finn." Rachel said.

"What?"

"Just be with her. You know you want to." The hurt in her voice was now very clear. "She's gorgeous, not like me, I know that." Rachel looked at him as he tried to tear away from Santana.

"That's not true. You're – "

"Do you need to take meds or something, Finny? You know what, I don't even care." Damn Santana. Could she learn to shut her mouth?

"You should be with her, Finn – it's what you both want. I'm just getting in the way." Rachel turned away and began to walk off, starting to fade away with every step she took.

"No! Rachel! Rachel!" He called after her, but she was gone. The woman before him dropped her hand from his chest and bit her lip.

"It's Santana, but you can call me whatever you want."

Ah, Fuck.

* * *

><p><strong>Just when Finn and Rachel seemed to be becoming friends, too! Will they make up? Will Rachel's Dads pull the plug? <strong>

**A/N again I hate making Santana so trashy, but it's necessary. Also, if any of you have seen _Just Like Heaven, _a few of the lines in here are what inspired me to write this fanfiction, since I thought they would apply to Finn and Rachel really well.**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**

**-Goldstarrach**


	7. Chapter 7

**We're back to following Finn's POV in this chapter. I missed writing his inner ramblings, so it's good to be back:) So, Finn's in a bit of a rut it appears. We'll see what happens!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven_. This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7<strong>

Finn's eyes fluttered open when sunshine began to pour through the large windows of his apartment's main room. How long had he been asleep? The clock hanging on the wall above the TV told him it was almost noon – that meant he'd been out for 14 hours. That had to be a new record since the breakup. He slept through that entire time on the uncomfortable couch, having crashed and being too lazy to move into his bedroom.

Well, he told himself he hadn't moved because he had been too lazy, but now that he thought about it, he was really waiting up for Rachel, but he knew she wouldn't come back. Though he tried to explain to her that Santana had just barged into the apartment, she simply did not believe him, and left quickly, in a hurt rage. He kicked Santana out right after Rachel left, and had gone to sit on the couch trying to think through the stress of that day.

A few hours later, he supposed he had fallen asleep, leaving him where he was now. He only ever slept for that long when he was completely trashed or feeling really upset about something. Normally, it would have been both reasons combined – being upset and getting drunk usually went hand in hand – but he didn't have one drink last night after Rachel left. Something about it just didn't seem right.

He couldn't believe that he'd lost her. Why the hell did he even allow Santana to set foot in his apartment? Rachel was right from the very beginning – that girl was bad news. And look where he was now: alone and feeling like shit.

Why _did_ he even feel so badly? He'd done nothing wrong; he'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Besides, it wasn't like Rachel would have been in his apartment forever. What did it matter when she left? She wasn't even supposed to be a part of his life, so he shouldn't have been upset that she had suddenly been removed from it.

But he was upset. He couldn't help but feel like the tiny brunette should be sitting next to him on the couch, nagging him for sleeping in so late, yelling at him to straighten up and take a shower. Maybe those things were annoying, but now more than ever, Finn appreciated every irritating thing she had done to him. She may have been capable of bothering the hell out of him, but now that she was gone, he would have done anything to get her back.

But that wasn't going to happen. Finn had plenty of experience with relationships, but something told him he wouldn't just be able to chase Rachel down and beg for her forgiveness. He didn't even know where she was, if she was anywhere at all. He remembered her saying that when she wasn't around him, she felt like she didn't exist.

Without her, he was beginning to feel the same way.

Nothing about this made sense. Finn was used to being confused by many things, like big words and girls, but right now he had never been more confused in his entire lifetime. He didn't know whether to attribute his confusion to the fact that the spirit of a girl's comatose body had been living in his apartment in the past week, or the girl itself.

Rachel alone confused him. It wasn't because she was disappearing on him half the time or could walk through walls. It was because of how she made him feel. A girl had never evoked as many different emotions from him as she did.

A loud knock on the door interrupted his thoughts before he could delve too deep into them. He wasn't going to answer it though – it was probably Santana, and that was the last person on the planet that he wanted to see. She'd probably leave on her own soon enough.

But she person knocked on the door once again, the pounding seeming to sound more frantic now. Finn would've ignored her, but she began to speak, and the voice did not belong to Santana. "I know you're in there, Finn. Lord Tubbington can sense your dark aura." Brittany.

He was prepared to politely send her away, but ultimately decided against it. Being openly emotional with people was not something he normally did. He'd been friends with Puck for so long that it had been wired into him that opening your heart to someone made you seem weak. But right now, he didn't care. Other than Rachel, Brittany was the only person that would be able to understand just what he was going through.

"Come on in." Finn ushered Brittany into his place, quickly closing the door behind her. She sat down on the back of the couch, setting her cat next to her, and stared at him. "What's up, Brittany?" He asked.

"I don't know, the ceiling? Is that a trick question?"

"No, I was just wondering why you came." Finn didn't want to ask for her help right away, and beating around the bush with Brittany was very easy.

"I was visiting a friend who also lives in this building and when I walked past this door, Lord Tubbington and I were just overcome with a serious feeling of depression. So, I thought I'd see what was going on." She explained, stroking her cat's fur. "I can sense that you got the girl to leave? How'd you manage that?"

"I actually wanted to talk to you about that." Finn pulled up a chair from the dining table and sat down to face Brittany. "I didn't get her to leave, she left on her own."

"Why would she do that?" She asked.

Finn explained the events of the past week from after the time Brittany visited the apartment up to last night. She seemed to be following along well, closing her eyes every now and then and sniffing the air. Finn still didn't really know what that meant, but he didn't question it. When he reached the end of his speech, she nodded her head and looked around her.

"Yeah, that sounds like Santana." She said, a smile playing on her lips.

"You know Santana?"

"Oh yeah. We go way back. She's the person I came to visit." Brittany laughed to herself a bit. Was there something he was missing? "Anyways," She continued. "So, you feel terrible now, because you hurt Rachel?"

"I feel more than terrible. I feel… alone, you know? Ever since she left last night, there have just been so many things that I want to say to her that I never got the chance to." He let out a sigh.

"Like what?" Finn gave her a confused look. "If she were here right now, what would you say to her?"

Finn lowered his eyes from hers and tried to think. What would he say to Rachel? "Well, first, that I'm sorry. Sorry that I was stupid and even let Santana in right after I had said goodbye to her at the hospital. Sorry that I even said goodbye at the hospital. I didn't think she'd be able to get anything done without me, but I still left her, and that was dumb of me. Sorry that… I was never honest about my feelings. I mean, she knew that she could annoy the hell out of me, but I never told her that she also made me feel so… alive. She was so understanding of me. And she could make me laugh, you know? I mean, she was just so damn tiny so it was hilarious whenever she got mad. Cute, even." He smiled to himself now. "But I think most importantly she needs to know that she had this hold on me. That even though it seemed like I didn't want anything to do with her for a while, I would never have deserted her. We were a team. At least, it felt that way to me."

He closed his eyes, pausing in his speech, trying to think. "I would tell her that I miss her. I miss her controlling ways. I miss those cute knee socks. I miss her voice. I know it's been, like, less than a day, but it feels longer. Sorry, I don't ever talk about my feelings. I just sound stupid."

"No you don't." Finn whipped his head around to where the voice came from, as it didn't belong to Brittany.

"Rachel." Finn breathed, bewildered by her appearance. "You came back." She walked closer to him so she could look him straight in the eyes.

"I can see my job is done here." Brittany said, grabbing her cat and showing herself out, probably headed to Santana's apartment.

Finn couldn't believe she was here. He thought for sure she was never coming back. The sight of her made his eyes light up, a large smile spreading across his face.

"Well, I didn't really go anywhere. I couldn't. I had nowhere to go, really." Rachel spoke calmly, making Finn nervous. Then he remembered that he needed to explain everything.

"Rachel, last night – "

"It's okay. I already know." She interrupted him. He just stared at her, confused. "I heard what you said to Brittany. I was here the whole time."

Oh, shit. He had no idea Rachel had been there, listening. Otherwise he would have tried to sound a lot smarter or he would have at least cleaned up or something. Guess it didn't really matter now. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that I was wrong. I can't believe I stormed out on you like that." She said. Finn laughed at her worried expression.

"You are an expert on storming out. Don't worry about it, Rachel. You were worked up, and I can't blame you. After everything that happened yesterday…" Finn's sentence trailed off and Rachel picked it up for him.

"Actually, Finn, that's why I came back last night," She began to choke up, struggling to speak the words clearly. Finn instantly became alarmed as tears began to form in her eyes. "After you left, my Dads – I have 2 gay Dads, I never told you that – they came and they… they decided to let me go. Tomorrow at noon."

The news hit Finn like a pound of bricks. He certainly wasn't expecting that at all. They were _thinking_ about pulling the plug last time he heard, how could they just make a decision like that already?

"What? They can't!" He shouted, disbelief in his voice.

"Yes they can. They think it's what's best." She wiped her tears away from her face, trying to be strong for herself and Finn. But she wasn't doing a very good job.

"We have to do something! We have to stop it!" Finn was pacing now, completely frantic. Rachel just stood there and watched. How could she be so calm about this? She was going to die, damn it!

"No, Finn! We can't." She said, her voice almost in a whisper. "I don't want to spend the last day of my life all depressed or trying to fight this. I know you don't understand it, but please respect it."

He would have argued against her, tried to convince her that they could fix this, that they couldn't just stand idle by. But then he remembered it would be no use to fight against her. There truly was no beating Rachel Berry. "Okay." was all he could manage.

"I want to spend my last day with you." She said, looking at him nervously.

"Anything you want to do. Anything at all!" Finn exclaimed. If he couldn't convince her to try and save herself, he was going to make this the best day of her life. "We can travel around the world, we can sneak into every Broadway show in this city!"

"There is one thing I really want to do." She said, a smile spreading over her face. Normally, this would have worried Finn, but today, he didn't care. He was up for anything, as long as he was with her.

"What did you have in mind?"

* * *

><p>"No, it doesn't look like that at all!"<p>

"Well, what does it look like to you?"

"Not like that. It's far too small."

"What? You're crazy. It's the perfect size. How would you know if it's too small anyways?"

"Finn, I'm very experienced at this. It's an art, it takes talent to master."

"Are you saying I'm bad at this?"

"Well, you're definitely not as creative with it as I thought you would be."

"Oh, whatever!"

Finn and Rachel began to laugh hysterically as they argued over what the cloud directly above them looked like. Finn insisted that it was a bear, but Rachel was convinced that it was much smaller and looked more like a puppy. She was right that he wasn't very experienced with cloud watching. The last time he'd done it was with his Mom when he was a little kid, but now, here he was, a 22 year old man, laying down on a patch of grass in the middle of Central Park, debating the shape of a cloud with Rachel.

They had walked around the park for about an hour, Rachel telling him all of her favorite things to do in the city. She'd wanted her last day to be spent saying goodbye to New York, the place she'd grown to love and call home over the past 5 years. He never once brought up what was going to happen tomorrow, not wanting to spoil the mood of the day. He didn't even care that people kept staring at him, thinking he was talking and laughing with himself. Rachel was having a great time, and that was all he cared about at the moment.

After a while of watching clouds, they stopped talking and just laid on their sides, looking at each other.

"I wish that I could freeze this moment in time and just live in it forever." Finn said, his gaze never leaving hers.

"Why's that?" She asked, even though she knew the answer.

"I don't know. I guess because I've never felt so… free. So alive." She nodded her head in response.

"I know exactly what you mean." She gave him a smile, which he happily returned. "Finn, did you mean what you said today? Everything you told Brittany about me?" She asked him, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Every word, Rachel. I don't know, there's just something about you. I feel like you have this permanent grasp on me, this connection. It's like I'm attached to you by this… invisible tether, you know? And no matter how far away you are, I can always feel you. Is that weird?" He asked, his eyes full of emotion.

"Not at all." She pulled her gaze away from his and stared at his hand. He knew what she wanted, and he wanted it too. He wished more than anything that he could pull her close, feel her warmth against his. He wanted nothing but to put his arms around her, to keep her safe from any harm that may ever come her way.

"Let me try something." He said, holding his palm up to her. At first she looked confused, but she eventually began to raise her hand to his, until they were right next to each other, touching. "I can almost feel that."

"Me too." She replied softly. "You know, I think if you could ever really touch me… I may wake up from all of this..." She looked at him, waiting for a response. "Finn?"

He lowered his hand from hers, a look of realization spreading across his face. "I think I know what I need to do." He said matter-of-factly, sitting up

"What?" She asked, sitting up with him.

"Rachel, when I first saw you in my apartment, I kept trying to tell you that you were dead."

"I remember." She said, a smile playing on her lips.

"But now I realize that I was the one who was dead. I was doing nothing with my life, totally consumed by all of this sadness after the break up with Quinn. I was headed nowhere in my life, and then, you! You brought me out of it all, you saved me!" He was growing louder now, grabbing the attention of nearby people, but he didn't care. All he cared about was her. "And now it's my turn to save you."

She looked at him with a shocked expression on her face. "How?" She asked, genuinely intrigued.

"I'm gonna steal your body." He said, a massive grin on his face.

"What? Finn! No! What are you thinking?" She asked frantically.

"I'm not! What does it matter? Why can't I?" He asked, looking deep into her eyes.

"You could get in so much trouble! You could go to jail!" She shouted, trying to persuade him, but having no effect.

"I don't care where the hell I'll be if I lose you, Rach! I can't lose you, okay? If I do, every time I reach for that tether, there'll be no one at the other end, and I'll feel like I'm falling into nothingness. I'll be alone, empty. I need you, Rachel. If we pull this off, it could buy us more time..." He pleaded with her. Who was he kidding? She'd never go for this, he sounded like a mad man. Hadn't he already decided that there was no beating this girl?

"There's so much you'd have to know to be able to do this, Finn. I don't know how you can get away with it." Rachel said, looking at him nervously. That wasn't a "no"!

"You're smart, you could figure something out! And there's always Google if we need any other help." She giggled at him, but he didn't miss a beat. "We can do this, I know we can!" He looked so determined and so nervous at the same time. If she didn't say yes, he didn't know what he was going to do. He'd just barely gotten over his last break up, he was not about to lose this girl and go through all that hurt again!

After much hesitation, Rachel finally let out a long sigh. "Fine!" He laughed and hollered in excitement but she shushed him when people started to seem concerned. "We'll do it tomorrow morning before they pull the plug, so we can start planning tonight."

He nodded in response. "I just want to hug you right now, you have no idea!"

"But there's no way you'll be able to pull this off alone." She cut him off, her tone serious. "You'll need someone else, someone who's not afraid of anything, someone who's dumb enough to agree to this, someone with no morals."

Finn began to smile from ear to ear, standing up with her, and beginning to walk to the subway to go back to the apartment.

"Don't worry. I know just the person."

* * *

><p><strong>Get ready for the Puckasaurus, people! Next chapter, they're probably going to break a ton of laws. But for Rachel, it's worth it! Will they get away with it? Keep reading!<strong>

**(A/N) There are a few lines that were taken almost directly from the movie _Just Like Heaven_, since a lot of them are what inspired me to write this fanfiction in the first place. So for those of you who have seen the movie, that may be why they some of the dialogue sounds familiar. I also just had to throw in the invisible tether. I had to!**

**Also, I threw a little bit of Brittana in there for you all, just a teeny bit. You can decide why Brittany was visiting her apartment;) **

**Thanks for reading and please REVIEW!**

**-Goldstarrach**


	8. Chapter 8

**Get ready for some action, guys! Well, not a lot of action, just more action than the rest of this fic has:) It's time to make a hospital-break!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven_. This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

"Whoa, dude, slow down! I like your enthusiasm in all, but if I have one more infraction with the Popo, I'm screwed." Puck held on tightly to the side door of the speeding van that Finn was driving down the secluded streets. Thank goodness no one ever really drove on these roads, or they'd have had no chance of making it to the hospital before noon. The van seemed to jump in the air as Finn ran over a speed bump going 50 miles an hour.

They were running out of time – it was already 11:00, much later than they intended on heading to the hospital, but forcing Puck out of bed 5 hours before he was used to getting up had lost them more time than they could afford. And what made things worse, Puck still had no idea what they were doing.

"Finn, you won't be able to save me if you kill yourself getting there." Rachel pointed out, sitting in the back seat of the van, sticking her head between the 2 front seats that Finn and Puck occupied.

"If I go any slower, it will be too late!" Finn yelled, intending the message for Rachel. Of course, Puck had no idea the girl was in the back seat.

"Too late for what? What are we doing again? You said we had to go to the hospital?" He asked Finn, one hand on the car door, the other grasping his Mohawk.

"Finn! You didn't tell him?" Rachel shouted at him, grabbing the back of his seat.

"Yeah, they're giving away medical supplies. You never know when you're gonna need a spare ventilator." Finn frantically said to Puck, ignoring Rachel. He couldn't be distracted anymore, he just had to get them to the hospital. Time was running out!

"What the hell is a ventilator? You're wasted or something, aren't you? You're acting crazy, man." Puck said, shaking his head at him. This was why he knew Puck would be the perfect person for this job. He may ask questions, but he never tried to stop you from doing something stupid. He was just along for the ride. Finn knew he'd have to tell Puck what he was up to eventually, but he was planning on holding that off until they had Rachel's body on a gurney.

"Finn, you need to tell him, now." Rachel persuaded with him.

"Not yet!" Finn yelled at her. He made a sharp turn around a corner, causing the other two passengers to fall to their sides. "Sorry about that." He said, but he did not slow down.

"Not yet, what?" Puck sounded exasperated. Having conversations with Rachel while Puck was in the car was only going to confuse him. They had to try and keep it quiet.

"Uh, we're not there yet." Finn answered his friend quickly.

"Yes, we are!" Rachel shouted to him.

"_Now_ we're here!" Finn yelled, pulling into the hospital parking lot, putting his car as close to the building as possible. Once they had Rachel's body, they were going to have to get out of there, fast.

Once the car was completely stopped, Finn reached in the back for the white lab coats that were sitting in the backseat and threw one at Puck. "Put that on."

"Okay, why?" He said, pulling his arms through the sleeves.

"Because they look cool." Finn answered flatly, still frantically looking around to make sure he had everything he needed. He had his keys to jump into the van quickly, Rachel knew what was necessary to transport the body. Now all he needed was to get in there and get out without handcuffs on.

"Okay, Finn. It's 11:14. We need to get up into the hospital's supply closet and get the stuff now." Rachel said, getting out of the car while he followed her lead.

"Puck, stay close to my side in there, and try to look professional." Finn told him, patting him on the shoulder. "Let's move."

* * *

><p>The three made their way into the hospital, trying to look as calm as possible. Rachel's plan was that Finn and Puck would try and pass for med students doing a residency there, but it was proving to be a difficult task. None of the patients seemed to question the two men being in the hospital, but a few employees looked suspicious. Rachel instructed Finn to just hold his head high and keep walking. They had to get to the employee elevator on the first floor. The hospital's online floor-plan indicated that one would bring them closest to the supply closet. Avoiding walking through the halls as much as possible was crucial at this point.<p>

Puck was doing more than Finn could have asked for. He kept quiet when they walked down the hallways, but whenever an employee stopped to look at them questioningly, he just shot them one of his famous sexy grins. That seemed to be keeping everyone too dazed to ask them any questions. That was another advantage to having Puck there: he was an amazing flirt. If Finn needed Puck to make a distraction, he simply had to show off his guns. His bad-boy act was irresistible.

They had finally reached the supply closet without any problems. But the hard part was just about to begin. The room was empty except for the three of them, something Finn and Rachel were grateful for – stealing from the hospital while impersonating as doctors probably wouldn't go over too well with anyone, and being alone provided the perfect time for Finn to explain everything to Puck.

"Okay, from what I read online, Finn, we're going to need a blood pressure cuff – that black thing right there – and a portable ventilator – the blue thing next to it." Rachel instructed him to grab the objects they needed as he moved around frantically. Puck simply watched in awe.

"Dude, I'm impressed that you're sneaking in here and stealing this stuff, really, I didn't know you had it in you, but honestly, I'd rather not get my ass busted for helping you out." He said, starting to remove his white coat. Finn had to tell him. It was now or never.

"Wait, Puck! You can't leave." He began. Puck stared at him, waiting for an explanation. "I need you to help me, or something very bad will happen."

"What are you talking about, Finn?"

He let out a long, drawn-out sigh and dove into his story, speaking very quickly. "Okay, this will sound weird, but don't interrupt until I'm finished. Remember when I told you that I was seeing this girl that wasn't really there running around my apartment?" He asked, not waiting for a response. "Well, it wasn't something I dreamed up, and she's not a hallucination. She's the spirit of a girl who is in a coma on this floor who they're going to take off of life support in a half hour. We have to get her out of here before they can do that." Puck stared at him with his jaw dropped.

"Really?"

"Really."

Puck let out a breath of air and ran his fingers through his Mohawk. "Okay, Finn. Maybe you need to see a psychiatrist or something." Great, he didn't believe him.

Rachel could tell that he was going to need some convincing. "Tell him we can prove it! Tell him I'm here!"

"No, Puck! Believe me, okay. Rachel is standing right behind you, right now." Finn began, but Puck still seemed unconvinced.

"Okay, if this girl's really behind me, how many fingers does she think I'm holding behind my back?" He placed his fist behind him and Finn called out the numbers right after Rachel told him.

"Two."

"Two."

"Five."

"Five."

"None."

"None."

"That's rude! He's flipping me off."

"Wow, Puck, you're flipping her off?"

Puck looked completely blown away by Finn's correct answers and threw his hands up in the air. "Okay, that's fucking messed up Finn. But even if this girl is real, do you know what you're risking for her? I mean, if you're caught, man, you're basically screwed for life. And so am I."

"Yes! I know very well what I'm risking! I saw it all online." Finn assured his friend, growing anxious. They had to get going, time was running out.

Puck looked at him like he was stupid. "Then why do it?"

"…Because I love her." Finn breathed out, now looking to Rachel. "I do, I love you. You know how I told you something always felt like it was missing? Well that something was you. I see that now." He looked at her, hoping for a good response, but she seemed speechless.

"I – No one's ever told me that before." She looked at him, her eyes full of emotion, the slightest of smiles playing on her lips. Finn had never been more pleased with himself. "Finn?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell Puck we're thankful that he's helping us." She said, unable to control her excitement now.

Finn turned to his confused friend. "We're really glad you're doing this for us, Puck."

His simply shook his head, grabbing the ventilator from Finn's arms. "Yeah, but I'm not doing this for you."

"Then why are you doing this at all?" Finn asked.

Puck began to walk for the door, the other two following close behind him. "Because someday, I'm going to ask you to help me move a body, and you aren't gonna give me any shit about it." Finn laughed, opening the door for the three of them.

"Okay, it's a deal. Now let's go!"

* * *

><p>Walking in a calm manner was no longer an option for Puck and Finn since it was now 11:40 and doctors and family members would be making their way to Rachel's room soon. They had absolutely no time to spare. Finally, they reached the inside of the room, where an unconscious Rachel laid.<p>

"Okay, let's move me on a gurney." Rachel suggested. Finn nodded and began to transfer her body's breathing tube to the portable ventilator the way she showed him. Puck stood there, motionless, seeming to be dazed by Rachel's appearance.

"Holy shit, Finn."

"I know, she's pretty, right?"

Rachel looked to the clock frantically. "That's nice of you two, but we have got to get a move on!"

"No, no." Puck said. "I mean, she's hot, yeah, but I know this girl."

Rachel and Finn stopped what they were doing and stared at him. "How?" They both asked.

"I'm buds with her friend, Kurt. We met at a gay bar in town." Puck explained, to Finn and Rachel's confusion.

"A gay bar?" Finn asked.

"There are always hot straight girls who come with their gay friends to party." He informed them. "But yeah, Kurt and I are friends." Finn eyed him suspiciously. "_Just _friends, dude. He's got a boyfriend. Anyways, he showed me pictures of this girl because he wanted to set you up on a date with her. I was going to tell you, but I forgot." Puck said.

"I was going to meet Rachel?" Finn asked, looking into Rachel's eyes.

"Yeah, but Kurt said she couldn't make it anyways."

The two of them couldn't believe what they were hearing. A look of realization began to spread over Rachel's face. "Oh, Finn. We were supposed to meet each other."

"That's why I can see you." Finn realized. Not that it mattered now, but things were beginning to make a lot more sense to him. Neither of them could remove their eyes from each other. They were _truly_ meant to be together.

"Hate to interrupt whatever's going on, but we've got 15 minutes until they kill this girl, so we need to go." Puck said bluntly.

Finn snapped his eyes away from Rachel's "Right, right."

The two men gently lifted her body onto the gurney, repositioning all of the cords from the ventilator so she would lay flat. It was unbelievable to Finn how smoothly things seemed to be running so far. He was beginning to think they may really be able to pull this off. Once everything was set, they pushed the gurney toward the door, ready to push it open and head for the elevator as fast as they could. But a voice stopped them.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just waiting for the Dads and then we can get this show on the road. God, I hate hospitals. That's why I kept voting for those death panels." A woman's voice could be heard directly outside the door, talking on the phone to someone. Rachel peaked through the window and saw her. She looked about 50 and was very tall with short blonde hair, and was wearing a long white lab coat over a pair of track pants.

"It's a doctor, Finn. Oh, God! It's all over!" She began freaking out, pacing back in forth in the little alcove between the door and the rest of the room.

"No, it's not." Finn looked quickly to Puck. "Dude, I'm gonna need you to go out there and flirt your ass off with this woman, okay? Do whatever you can to get her away from here. We need a clear pathway to that elevator."

Puck nodded his head and went for the door. "Do you see these guns?" He said, lifting up his arms. "I don't care who she is, she won't be able to resist me."

Rachel watched Puck through the window while he talked to the woman.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked, crossing her arms. Puck was not fazed.

"Your biggest dream, baby." He lifted his hand to her name tag, but she swatted it away. "So, Sue, how's about you and me go hang out somewhere not so depressing."

"It's Dr. Sylvester to you. What were you doing in there?" She asked, trying to look into the window. Thank God Rachel was invisible to everyone else. But Puck better get a move on, they had less than 10 minutes.

"Waiting for you, baby." How did Puck come up with these things off the top of his head? "Why don't you come hang with the Puckster?"

She quickly grabbed his arm and began to drag him down the hallway. "Why don't you come with me and we'll have security shave that Chia Pet off your head." Her back was now turned to the room, heading in the other direction. Now was their chance.

"Let's move, Finn! While she's gone!" Rachel shouted to him. He quickly pushed the door open and began to wheel the gurney as quickly as he could down the hall to reach the elevators. A few people began to stare, but he didn't care. He had to get her body out of there, stat.

They'd gotten almost halfway down the hall when things started to fall apart. "What the hell is he doing with that girl?" Dr. Sylvester yelled from down the hallway. Finn kept moving, trying to go as fast as he could to reach the elevators. "Security!" The woman yelled, sending the whole hospital into a frenzy.

They had finally reached the elevator, Finn pressing the button multiple times while people began to run for them. "Finn! We don't have time to wait for the elevator! We have to go a different way!" Rachel yelled to him. He quickly turned the gurney down a different hallway, moving as quickly as he could, knocking over people that tried to pursue them. Looking down the hall, he could see another set of elevators at the very end, one with doors beginning to open. They had to get inside of it! It was their last chance.

"Go! Go! Go!" Rachel shouted, running alongside him. He was close enough to push the gurney in into the elevator when a security guard stepped out from the open doors, lunging for Finn. "Look out!"

But before the security guard could get a hold of Finn, someone from behind him jumped over the gurney and on top of the guard, forcing him back into the elevator, the doors beginning to close behind them. "Go, man, go!" Puck! "Ah, shit! Not the bre –" was the last thing Finn heard his friend say when he raced down the hallway. He didn't know what to expect though. It wasn't all that likely that there would be another empty hall with a set of elevators, but that would have been ideal.

They'd reached an intersection between two hallways, giving them three directions to choose from. Just when Finn was about to ask Rachel which way they should go, she stopped him.

"Finn, something's wrong." She said softly. Finn looked toward her and noticed that she was beginning to fade away.

"Rachel, what's happening?" He asked frantically, noticing a crowd of people starting to form around them. But he wasn't running now – something was up.

She shook her head, not knowing what to say until she looked at her body laying down before her. "My breathing tube! It's gone!" She shouted. How was that possible? It was there when they left the room.

Then he remembered what Puck said right after he had jumped over Rachel's gurney to attack the security guard. _"Not the bre – "_ athing tube. Puck must have accidently ripped it off of her. Dear God, no.

He looked back to face her, seeing that she was rapidly disappearing. "What can I do?" Finn asked her frantically.

"Nothing, Finn. It's too late, I'm dying." She whispered, her tone defeated.

No. No! This was not happening! He came here to save her, and now because of him, she was dying right before his eyes. Everyone else around them was beginning to realize what was happening was well. The monitor telling her pulse showed it slowing down, alerting she was near the end.

Suddenly, two security guards grabbed a hold of Finn's arms, beginning to pull him away from the gurney Rachel was laying on while she died.

"Rachel!"

"Finn." She breathed out. Then, just like that, she disappeared, gone. The heart monitor's beeping stopped, changing into one constant tone, a straight line moving across the screen.

He saw now that the open space surrounding them was filled with people watching. There were doctors, nurses, random patients who had no reason to be there, all of Rachel's friends from the theatre. All of them standing there, watching this girl die. He couldn't let that happen.

Using all the strength he could muster, Finn pulled away from the strong security guards, going straight for the gurney the lifeless Rachel was laying on. He could hear people shouting to grab him or pull him back, but nothing was going to stop him.

Now more than ever he was happy that he had chosen to pay attention on the day they taught how to do mouth-to-mouth in health class. Placing his mouth to hers and holding her nose clamped shut, he began to give her several deep breaths. The room around him went silent as people watched in awe. He was still breathing into her when he heard the heart monitor begin to beat.

"That's not possible." Someone watching said.

Finn removed his mouth from hers and backed away, the heart monitor beginning to beep at a normal rate. Everyone was still dead silent as they watched Rachel's chest begin to rise and fall, all on its own.

With one sharp inhale of breath, Rachel's eyes fluttered open, causing everyone to gasp and let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Rachel," Finn said, looking into her eyes. She blinked a few times, looking very confused, when Kurt stepped over to the gurney, gently turning her head toward his.

"Kurt." She said in a whisper. Tears began to fall from his eyes while a smile formed on his lips.

"Yes, it's me. Oh, God, Rachel." He said, taking her hand in his. Two men rushed over, who Finn assumed to be Rachel's Dads, tears rushing down their faces.

"I can't believe we almost let you go, baby." One of them said, kissing her forehead. Rachel just stared at them, a look of confusion seeming to be permanently plastered on her face.

"I think I hit my head." She said, placing her hand to the spot one of her Dads had kissed her.

Kurt let out the tiniest of laughs. "Yeah."

She turned her head now to look at Finn, her eyes filled with amazement. He looked at her in relief, wanting nothing but to hold her close to him. "Hey." was all he could muster. She looked him up and down, beginning to shake her head. "It's me, Finn." He said, offering her his half smile.

She nervously looked to Kurt for help, and then turned back to him. "I'm sorry, I don't know." She whispered. What? What did she mean?

"Rachel, it's Finn. You don't remember Finn?" Kurt said, placing a strand of her hair behind her ear. He must have believed now what Finn told him about them dating back at the theatre. She looked back to Finn, seeming to struggle to try and remember his face, but she just shook her head.

"The apartment. Central Park." He said, trying to jog her memory. "Nothing." He slowly reached for her empty hand laying on the hospital gurney, hoping that it may make her see the truth, but she pulled it away before he could, looking at him nervously.

Nothing. She didn't remember a thing about him. Not that she met him in her apartment, not that she had tried to annoy the hell out of him to get him to leave, not that they went all over New York City to find out who she was, not that they spent a whole day in Central Park together.

She didn't remember that he loved her. She didn't remember that she loved him.

Finn began to back away slowly, tears filling in his eyes. He pushed through the group of onlookers, keeping his head down. No one even made a move toward him. They just let him go, walking down the empty hallway. They must have thought he was some sort of hero for bringing her back to life, so they'd seemed to dismiss all the laws he had broken.

The elevator doors opened before him, and he took one last look down the hallway before he stepped in them. A few people stared at him, completely in awe. But most had their attention turned toward Rachel, smiling and hugging her.

He'd done what he was supposed to do. He'd saved her.

But somehow, he'd lost her all the same.

* * *

><p><strong>Poor Finn! What will he do without her? Keep reading! Only one chapter left! (possibly an epilogue as well)<strong>

**(A/N) I know I've said this before, but I think I should say it again. Some lines are taken almost directly from the movie _Just Like Heaven _because they in particular are what inspired me to write this fan fiction. So if you've seen the movie and recognize the similarities, that is why;)**

**Almost everything Sue said was an actual Sue quote, just a bit modified as well:) I don't think I could do Sue better than Sue.**

**Thanks for reading and PLEASE REVIEW!**

**-Goldstarrach**


	9. Chapter 9

**Besides an epilogue, this is our last chapter! We've come a long way! How is Finn dealing with the heartbreak of losing Rachel? And just what has Rachel been up to since she woke up? **

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven, _or _Spring Awakening _and _LMN _(which are mentioned), as well as any song lyrics that are included. This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9<strong>

Three weeks had passed since he lost her. But for him, it felt like a lifetime.

Time seemed to go by at a slower rate with every passing day that Finn sat in Puck's apartment, not wanting to go out and do much of anything. He still went to work and went out on the town with his friend every now and then, but only because he knew that Rachel wouldn't have wanted him to mope around all day consumed by his sadness.

He knew he shouldn't have been acting this way, since she was alive. If she had died, he probably wouldn't have had the will to go on. But she was okay, moving on with her life how she had left it 4 and a half months earlier, before the accident.

Why did he have to fall for her? He wouldn't have felt this messed up about everything if he hadn't cared for her. But that was the problem – if he hadn't cared about her, she would have died that day in the hospital.

What did he do to deserve this kind of hell that kept being thrown at him? First he lost Quinn, which he had just managed to get over before he met Rachel, and now she'd been taken away from him too. Maybe it was some sort of sign – a sign that he wasn't meant to be with anyone, a sign that happiness was only temporary. Or maybe it was just bad luck. But he supposed it didn't really matter why those things happened to him. It was over now, and no matter how much he would have liked to, he couldn't change the past.

The only thing he could try and change was his future, though he didn't seem to be making much of an effort to do so. He wasn't even entirely sure what his future would be – would he be a hotel receptionist for the rest of his life? How much longer would it be until he could find a new apartment and get out of Puck's? There was no telling. But at the moment, he didn't particularly care where he was going. He only knew that he couldn't keep wasting his life like he was now.

"You want a beer?" Puck asked Finn who was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the clock on the wall. Were the hands moving slower, or was that just him?

"No, thanks, man." He replied. Puck had already known what his friend's answer would be – that had been his response ever since Rachel came out of her coma. Finn refused to even have one drop of alcohol, though he was tempted plenty of times. It just didn't seem right to him since Rachel had always gotten mad at his drinking habits. He also knew that although beer may have numbed the pain for a while, it never made it go away permanently. A lot of the time, it just made it worse.

Puck grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat down at the table across from Finn, setting the drink down forcefully to grab his attention. "Can we please address the big Jewish elephant in the room?" Finn raised his eyebrows, trying to look as interested as possible. "You've lost it man. I mean, really, it's like Quinn all over again." _Worse, _Finn thought. "I'm glad you leave this place every now and then, but I can tell you're not happy. Everyone can." It was a little weird that Puck was being so serious with Finn – it was something he never really did, ever. But he was still finding it difficult to take his friend's words to heart.

"I know I've been acting really… out of it lately. And I'm sorry. You shouldn't have to force me to get out of bed in the morning and make me leave the house like you're my mom or something. It's just been… difficult." Finn didn't like to talk specifics when it came to how he felt about Rachel. Not very many people were all that convinced that Finn had even known her before the accident like he told them, and Puck was still a little confused about the whole "spirit" thing. Besides, there wasn't much he could do about it, so what did it matter?

"I get it. But Finn," Puck began. "You're not doing yourself any good. Now, you've gone through this hell before, I know you have. But you were strong enough to get through it. You can get through this too."

Finn clamped his eyes shut and took a deep breath. "That's where you're wrong. I may have gotten over Quinn, but I wouldn't have been strong enough if it wasn't for Rachel. I know that you may not understand what went on between me and Rachel, or believe any of it, but just please respect it."

Puck opened his can of Coke and took a sip from it. "Oh, trust me. I believe that you met Rachel's spirit or whatever she was. You wouldn't be this fucked up if you didn't love her either."

"Uh, thanks?"

"But as your best friend, your brother from another mother, your bad-ass homeboy, I'm telling you that you have to start moving on. You've got to start putting yourself back out there and face the world, or whatever other shit they put in those LMN movies. You're meant for bigger things than this stuff you've been pulling." Puck shoved his friend's shoulder. "You're Finn Hudson, damn it! The tall, super talented, heartthrob or whatever! You have got so much going for you!"

Finn looked at Puck, still seeming unconvinced. "Well, what would you do?"

A sly grin moved across Puck's face as he stood up and pushed Finn out of his seat. "Look out there." They edged closer to the large window that overlooked the Manhattan streets. It was an amazing view, and Finn never did understand how Puck could afford such a nice place. They were so high up that they could see all the way down the street filled with cars and taxis, the sidewalks buzzing with New Yorkers on their way to work or just hitting the town. Across from Puck's building, people were beginning to gather around a guy who was playing the guitar and singing – he must have been no older than 18. Seeing the scene below him, Finn was reminded of the reason he'd come to New York City in the first place – to make something of himself, to meet completely new people, to make his dreams come true. Somewhere along the way, he'd forgotten everything that the high school boy from small town Ohio had ever wanted for himself.

Puck didn't need to explain anything more to him. He could finally see it now, the dream that had slipped away from him when he'd gotten caught up in all the drama that now didn't even seem to matter.

The city was calling him. And he was finally ready to answer.

* * *

><p>After a long day of work at the hotel, Finn decided to take a walk through Central Park – it was the only thing that seemed to truly relax him, that relieved his stress of the day. It was something he did very often, whenever he had the chance to take some time off for himself, as it was his own personal form of therapy for everything that had gone on in the past year. Talking about his feelings was something he avoided entirely when it came to Puck and his other friends. The only person he was even remotely comfortable with opening up to was his mom – they were always really close since it was just the two of them when his dad died – but he hadn't even told her anything about Rachel.<p>

He was doing fine though. And he hadn't entirely kept his emotions bottled up inside of him – writing songs about his pain had somehow served as a method for moving on. He didn't record them or anything, but just wanted to keep them for himself, to stand as a diary in a way. Puck had heard him play a few of them, and he insisted that they were "pure gold" and that he was crazy for not trying to make money off of them. But he didn't care about making money – he just needed to get things off his mind.

_How long do I fantasize?  
><em>_Make believe that it's still alive?  
><em>_Imagine that I am good enough,  
><em>_And we can choose the ones we love?  
><em>_But I hold on, I stay strong  
><em>_Wondering if we still belong..._

Of course he still thought about her, a lot really. It was inevitable to recall the last day the spent together whenever he went to Central Park. And if he was being completely honest with himself, he kept going back because of her. He knew that letting go of her was the right thing to do, and he was working on it. The Rachel Berry that was alive and well now had no idea who he was, and there was no changing that. But still, no matter how much he may have moved on, he had a feeling she would always hold a place in his heart.

Rachel may have not been a part of his life anymore, but she had never really left him. And probably never would.

How long had it been since that day in the apartment with Puck? 5 weeks, 6 maybe? He tried not to really think about how time passed, probably because he'd relate it to her. Almost 10 weeks since he'd met Rachel. And 8 since she'd forgotten.

Still, he wasn't mad like he used to be. He was calmer about the whole thing, more accepting. Puck liked to tease him for the fact that he'd seemed to have gone through the classic stages of grieving. Early on, it wasn't really funny to him. But now that he thought about it, though he wouldn't say he was grieving, that's pretty much exactly what happened. Denial – he was trying to convince himself for the first couple of days that he'd never even met Rachel and that he'd imagined all of it. But then he thought that would make him crazy so he got over that quickly. Then anger – he was filled with rage for some time, always going off on Puck whenever he tried to reason with him. It had taken him a while to realize that no one deserved the shit he was giving them so he managed to calm down. Then he was… numb. That was the only word he thought really fit the feeling. The feeling of knowing that he'd lost the one thing that actually made him feel happy again.

But now, as he sat in the park, watching people exercising, taking strolls with their families, or just chilling on benches like he was, he couldn't help but notice that he'd come full circle: acceptance. She'd moved on, and he was no longer angry about it. Of course he'd always hurt a little, but now he saw that Rachel's life and his own were two different things. He could see that watching the clouds as he was now was going to have to be an activity he did on his own.

Yes, he missed her. There was no denying that. But part of him knew that because of what Rachel gave him, he'd be able to move on. She had after all brought him out of the heartbreak he had with Quinn. He was filled with a sort of inspiration to keep going in life and make something of himself, follow the dreams of the small town high school Finn.

He'd gotten so much better. But it was still a weird feeling to know that no matter how much he wanted her to be by his side again, to see her face or to hear her laugh, she wouldn't be there.

_But it's too late to say you're sorry  
><em>_How would I know, why should I care  
><em>_Please don't bother trying to find her  
><em>_She's not there.  
><em>_Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looked  
><em>_The way she'd act and the color of her hair  
><em>_Her voice was soft and cool  
><em>_Her eyes were clear and bright  
><em>_But she's not there._

Finn sat on the wooden green bench for just a bit longer before he decided to head home to his new apartment, one that just happened to be in the same building as Puck's. It wasn't quite as nice as his friend's, no view or completely furnished interior, but it worked. Besides, it was the only apartment that he could find within his budget at short notice.

While making his way out of the park, he noticed a large group of friends around his age having a picnic on a patch of grass. Friends like that would have been nice. Puck was a great friend, probably the best he'd ever had, but other than that, he just had a few acquaintances around town, like Azimio and Karofsky, Puck's bar buddies, but he didn't particularly like them. He considered Brittany a friend at this point, who stopped by his new apartment every Tuesday night with Lord Tubbington to talk. But these people he saw now, they looked like they were all really close and having fun. That was something he'd never had with any group.

He kept walking, not looking back at the band of friends when someone's voice stopped him.

"I see you've decided to grace us with your presence." The voice wasn't directed toward him, but it came from the people he was just watching. Something about that voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Sorry! I just had to move a few more things back into my apartment." A girl replied. That voice he knew anywhere.

He whipped his head around to see the picnicking cast of _Spring Awakening_, all talking and laughing with each other. How could he have not noticed it was them before? The faces he now recognized from the theatre – there were the two Asians side by side, the African American girl with the loud laugh, the brown curly haired man-diva (from what he remembered), and the rosy cheeked, thin boy wearing white pants and a matching studded jacket, a black top hat above his head – Kurt.

But the one person that stood out to him in particular was the 5'2 brunette, wearing a short brown skirt with a yellow blouse, and gold knee socks with little blue hearts on them. He was pretty sure his heart stopped.

She was there. In the flesh. Standing 30 yards away from him.

He certainly hadn't anticipated this situation.

His first instinct was to run for her and throw his arms around her, refusing to ever let her go. Then he remembered that she had no memory of their time together. Every other person surrounding her knew very well who Finn was – they were all at the hospital when he'd saved her life, and a few of them had taken the time to personally thank him for what he did for their friend. So, it wouldn't have been like he was a complete stranger if he went over to see them. But either way, he'd be intruding. Besides, he had no real reason to head in their direction, other than the fact that he just wanted to be close to her again.

Ah, but wait! He still had the keys to her apartment! Finn had meant to give them to Kurt so he could return them to Rachel, but he never seemed to remember to, though he always had them in his back pocket. Now was his chance!

But he couldn't just walk over there. What would he say? _"Hey, uh, I know it's been over 2 months since I've last talked to any of you, but I thought I'd give you these keys so you don't think I have any plans to break into Rachel's apartment."_ He'd look like a complete idiot.

No, he shouldn't do this. It wouldn't be right, not when he was just starting to move on. Not when Rachel's life was finally back to normal. He couldn't possibly…could he?

* * *

><p>"Please tell me that you are completely done moving in. You need to spend time with your friends!" Mercedes chided Rachel as she smoothed her skirt after taking her place on the picnic blanket next to the rest of her cast mates.<p>

Rachel sighed. "I spend plenty of time with you all."

"But not enough." Tina threw in, poking Rachel's thigh. She did love them all dearly, and always would, but ever since she had woken up after the accident, they had wanted to spend more time with her than usual. Whenever she asked him about it, Kurt would just brush it off, saying that everyone just wanted to make up for lost time. But Rachel knew better – they were holding onto her for dear life, not wanting to lose her again.

Other than that, her life had returned to how it was before the accident. After she'd been restored to full health, she'd gotten back her apartment, which was sublet out to someone else for less than a month, though she had no idea who. She also reprised her role of Wendla in her show on Broadway recently, requiring Sunshine to step down from the lead, which surprisingly, she did gladly. As it turned out, Sunshine felt terribly that she'd taken Rachel's role while she was on the verge of death – she told Rachel that although she may have always been jealous of her talents, replacing her in such a way was not something she took pride in.

Everything was back in the place that it should have been, as if the accident had never occurred. That seemed to be the way that everyone preferred it.

However, there was one thing that did seem out of place. When she had woken up from all of it, she'd briefly seen a man, Finn (as she had been told), that had saved her life. Apparently they had known each other before the accident – at least, that was the impression she had gotten the day she woke up, since Kurt had asked her if she remembered him at all – but she had no recollection of the man. She'd asked Kurt a few times how Finn knew her, but he would often times say he wasn't entirely sure himself. She would have liked to know, considering he was the one who saved her life, and she hadn't seen him since that day. Why would you save someone and never check back in to see how their life that you just restored was going on? She had a feeling that she wouldn't be getting answers from her friends, so she was very closed-mouthed on the matter.

But there was plenty of time to think about these things later, so she removed them from her thoughts so she could relax with her friends on a beautiful day in Central Park. She was not going to allow anything to bring her down now.

Popping a grape from the picnic basket into her mouth, she outstretched her legs, displaying her patterned socks for everyone to see. Normally, this was a time when Kurt would comment on how he needed to take her shopping for some new clothes, but he hadn't spoken of her wardrobe at all since she'd woken up. He had never said it, but she thought that maybe her almost dying made him miss seeing her quirky sense of style. Either way, she wasn't complaining.

Smiling at her many close friends, Rachel replied, "Well, I'm here now, so let's have a good time like we planned to!"

Kurt began to distribute plates to everyone when Jesse spoke up. "You look very nice today, Rachel." She abruptly lifted her gaze to his, seeing his beaming smile. She guessed that his interest in her hadn't faltered after the accident.

"Thank you, Jesse, that's very kind." She said, placing a strand of her hair behind her ear. Most everyone could tell that he made her nervous, but they all assumed that she was crushing on him, which was not the case. Jesse was a great guy, but certainly not for her. She had yet to meet anyone who she really felt she would ever love – but of course, there was time for that. Her Dads always told her that you could find love in the most unexpected places and unlikely times.

Kurt's laugh was what broke the silence. "What?" Rachel asked, her face turning scarlet. Had she zoned out while thinking again? She'd been doing that a lot lately. The looks on everyone's faces seemed to confirm her suspicions. "Oh, sorry." She breathed.

"It's okay, Rachel. No one blames you, you have a lot on your mind." Kurt said, now removing food containers and setting them down. She was beginning to reply when everyone's eyes around her darted to something on her side, looks of shock spread across their faces.

"Sorry to interrupt." A voice spoke from where her friends had been looking. She turned her head to face the person who had approached their picnic blanket and was immediately surprised as the rest of her group had been. "I just saw you all and thought I'd return these." He held out his hand, displaying an object to them, but Rachel did not bother to look at it. Her eyes were glued to his face as he spoke, trying to take in all of his features.

This was the man who had saved her life, she was sure of it. She had an image of his face in her mind from the day of her waking, but seeing him in front of her now, she realized her memories did not do his appearance justice at all. Skin that looked so smooth with a soft glow that radiated off of it. Slightly tousled hair that was swooped out of his light brown eyes. A few freckles playing on the sides of his nose and just a bit of stubble resting on his chin. Staring at him, she noticed that his eyes never looked her way, not even to steal a quick glance. Was he trying to avoid her?

How _did_ they know each other? Clearly not enough to even have an interest in speaking with her. There had to have been something she was missing, there had to have been! But she wouldn't find out anything from her friends. Ah, but here was the man himself, standing merely 5 feet away from her, who held all of the answers. Now was her chance. She was going to find out how she knew him no matter how much it may cost her.

Before any of her friends could reply to his interruption, she spoke. "Long time, no see."

* * *

><p>"<em>Long time, no see." <em>He wasn't expecting that. He never intended on making eye contact with her, let alone speak with her. What was she doing? And better yet, what the hell was he supposed to say to that?

"Rachel!" He said, trying to sound as upbeat as possible. "How are you?" That worked – it left the conversation open to her.

"Fine, a bit confused on some things, but for the most part, fine." She replied, offering him a smile. He missed seeing her smile so much.

"Confused? About?" He was hoping that wasn't too pushy, but he truly wanted to know. Maybe there were some memories of their time together floating in her mind.

She was ignoring the glares of her friends entirely, her eyes only fixed on him. "Well, if I'm going to be completely honest, you." That's what he wanted to hear. "No one wants to tell me how we knew each other before my accident, and I want to know."

Kurt cut in before Finn could utter any words. "Rachel, maybe we could talk about this some other time?"

"Calm down, Kurt. I just want some answers, which I probably won't be getting from you." Same old stubborn Rachel – that much hadn't changed. "Finn?"

He wanted to tell her so badly everything that had happened between them, from the day they met each other to the moment she woke up. He wanted her to remember how they loved each other, how they'd seemed to complete each other. But he couldn't risk looking like a fool if he tried to explain it all to her then. None of her friends even knew the whole story – they just thought that he and Rachel had dated. What could he even say?

His eyes quickly shifted to Kurt's, who gave him a look of warning. Finn knew what Kurt was trying to say – he didn't want Rachel to think that she and Finn had been romantically involved in any way because he didn't want her to get hurt. He didn't want to confuse her anymore than she already had been. Finn didn't want to hurt her either – that was the last thing he wanted to do – but could he just let her go on in life without knowing what really happened? She certainly at least deserved the truth whether it made him an idiot or not.

But her friends' stares were all showing fear, fear that whatever Finn may say would break her. He wasn't going to have that happen.

"I lived in your building for a while. We were just neighbors, friends." It wasn't completely a lie.

Her expression softened immediately. "Oh." She moved her eyes to Kurt's. "You could have told me that."

The boy's eyes opened wide. "Well, you never really mentioned Finn, so I didn't know what to say." Kurt said. Rachel seemed suspicious, but eventually nodded her head, accepting his answer.

She believed it. By the look she'd had in her eyes, he could tell she'd been expecting something huge or life changing, but she got just the opposite. And yet, she'd accepted it all. That was good – it would be what was easiest for her. Maybe not the easiest thing for Finn, but he didn't care so much about that. Besides, he'd planned to continue on in his life without ever seeing her again, that was, until he saw her in the park.

But he'd move on for her. She didn't need someone like him to tie her down.

"Uh, well, here's the key to Rachel's apartment." Finn outstretched his arm to Kurt, the ring dangling in his fingers. Kurt had just touched them with his fingertips when Rachel stopped them.

"Why does everyone assume that I can't handle myself, now? They're my keys, I'll take them, Finn." She held out her hand to him while she glared at Kurt.

"Oh, okay." Finn placed the key in her palm, his fingertips just brushing over her smooth skin, sending tingles of electricity through his hand. Her eyes widened at the slight contact, as did his, but she suppressed her surprise quickly. "Bye, then." He said, turning around and beginning to walk away.

He refused to look back. No matter how much he didn't want it to be, it was time to let her go.

He'd almost reached the pavement when he heard footsteps coming fast behind him. "Wait!" Whipping his head around, he saw Rachel chasing after him, stopping only just within his arm's length. She was breathing heavily, her eyes full of emotion. "When you touched me…" She breathed out, looking at him nervously.

There was no need to finish the sentence. Immediately his mind flew back to the day they spent in Central Park together, when they'd touched their hands to each other.

"_You know, I think if you could ever really touch me… I may wake up from all of this..."_

She spoke in a whisper. "I wasn't just your friend." It was not a question.

"No." He said, eyeing her curiously. "You were so much more."

All at once, her lips crashed against his and he threw his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. He kissed her deeply, wanting to convey every message to her that he never got the chance to once she woke up. It felt so good to have her warmth against his own, finally being able to touch. When the kiss broke, he just hugged her, picking her feet off the grass and spinning her around.

He finally set her down, looking into her big brown eyes. "I'm guessing you remember now?"

"Oh, yeah." A huge grin spread across her face that he couldn't help but mirror. Their gaze broke once they realized that her friends had been cheering and hollering while watching the whole scene play out in front of them.

They faced the group and both laughed in embarrassment, but she looked back to him and extended her hand. "I think we have some lost time to make up for."

He gladly took her hand in his and lightly kissed her on the head. "That, we do."

They walked back to the picnic blanket, hand in hand, feeling nothing but complete bliss. She was finally by his side, in his grasp, tethered to him in more ways than one.

He never released his grip from hers – now that she was finally his, he was never going to let go.

* * *

><p><strong>Reunited and it feels so good! Be on the look out for an epilogue ladies and gents ;) It may be out in week or so.<strong>

**So, how did you like it? **

**(A/N) I know I say this all the time, but again, some bits of dialogue are very similar to some in the movie _Just Like Heaven_, so if you have seen it and find anything familiar, that is why. **

**Also, the first of Finn's songs was part of _Glee_'s original song, "Pretending", which I do not own in any shape or form. I just thought that verse fit the story pretty well. The second song is "She's Not There", by _The Zombies, _my inspiration for the title_. _Again which I do not own at all. I chose to use "She's Not There" because the way I interpreted the lyrics in this case was that he feels stupid that he fell for a girl that he can't and shouldn't have, and she's gone from his life. I know it can be interpreted in many many many ways, but that is the way I saw that it fit for the story. (Yeah, Finn didn't actually write this one, but we can pretend he did. I mean, let's face it, I'm not sure Finn would be all that capable of writing a song like "Pretending" anyways :p )**

**So... please REVIEW! I really really _really _appreciate reviews, and if you could take the time to do so, I would be very thankful! Feel free to send a prompt for a story my way in PMs too:)**

**Epilogue will be out soon:)**

**-Goldstarrach**


	10. Epilogue

**It's the epilogue! It's shorter than the chapters, but this didn't need to be too long:) Thank you to everyone who is reading this now and has come this far! It means a lot!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. I also do not own _Just Like Heaven_ or _Spring Awakening_ (which is mentioned). This is just for fun:)**

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

It was nearing 11:00 PM when everyone at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre was heading out after their show, throwing on their coats and scarves to brace themselves for the cold February of New York City. Thankfully, there wasn't any snow, but the cold rain that fell in the past week was no fun either. But when Finn looked out the window of his girlfriend's dressing room, there was not a drop of rain in sight – perfect timing. He couldn't be sure how long that would last though.

"Almost ready, Rach?" He asked, trying to quicken her pace.

"Yep, all done here." Rachel said, while she put the last of her makeup away and gathered her red coat and dark blue scarf. Finn stood next to her, lightly placing her white beret on her head, and kissed her cheek. The couple was positioned in front of her vanity mirror, and Finn couldn't help but laugh at the image of her next to him. He made her look so tiny, which she thought was bothersome, but he insisted it was adorable. In fact, it seemed to him that a lot of the things she didn't like about herself were the things he liked the most.

"You had an amazing show tonight." He said, holding her dressing room door for her as they exited.

Rachel giggled and placed her hand in his. "As did you, my handsome drummer." Will had offered Finn a spot in the _Spring Awakening_ band for drumming about a month after he and Rachel officially got back together. When she heard that they needed a new drummer, Rachel talked to Finn about it constantly until he finally gave in and auditioned – somehow, she could still convince him to do just about anything, but this was one thing that he was glad he agreed to. He got paid pretty decently, and he was doing something he loved to do, rather than work behind a hotel counter all day. It was just an extra bonus that he got to spend a lot more time with Rachel and watch her perform.

When they were out of the theatre in front of the stage door, Rachel instinctively headed toward Times Square to get on the subway and go to their apartment, but Finn pulled her arm in the other direction. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously.

"Let's go for a walk." She eyed him suspiciously, but still agreed, which he knew she would – Rachel enjoyed walking around Manhattan no matter what time of day it was or how cold. Before they could begin their stroll down the streets, Finn checked his pockets. They were all set.

They walked together for a bit, her arm linked through his and her head resting on his shoulder. She still seemed unsuspecting, which was just how Finn wanted it. It was about 11:30 when they reached 59th Street at the beginning of Central Park.

"Is it okay with you if we walk for a bit longer?" He asked, hoping she'd agree to it.

"Of course, you know I'd never turn a walk with you through the park down."

They didn't do much talking when they walked – that was the way Rachel usually liked it. She always wanted to take in her surroundings and just relax, listening to the sounds around her. Finn tried to make his breathing steady like hers, but it was proving to be difficult since it was growing closer to the right time. He was frantically trying to think of a conversation to start to lead into it, but thankfully she saved him.

"You know, being in New York is like falling in love over and over again every minute." She lifted her head from his shoulder and smiled at him.

"I know what you mean." He said, his eyes never leaving hers. A small smile was playing on her lips and she shut her eyes, perfectly content in the moment. This was the time, Finn could tell. He had to go for it. He took a deep breath and spoke. "Being with you is like falling in love over and over again every minute."

Her calm stride paused and she slowly looked up at him. Oh no, this wasn't good. He must have freaked her out or something. Did he say something wrong? Did he smell weird? Oh, God, she was upset.

She must have noticed that he was worried because she quickly jumped in. "I love you, too." Oh. He wasn't expecting her to say that.

Now what was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to kiss her first? Or afterwards? Should he take it out of his pocket before he knelt down? Damn it. Where was Kurt Hummel when you needed him? He'd know exactly what to do in this situation. But Finn was guessing that no amount of advice could take his mind off the fact that he was staring down into the eyes of the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes upon. He had to just go for it.

"That's good, that you love me too." He reached into his coat pocket while getting down on one knee, holding her hand with free one. "Because, um…" He held the little black box in his hand and opened it for her to see. No words escaped from his mouth and he was sure that he looked like a complete idiot, but Rachel didn't seem to care. She stole a quick glance at the ring but looked straight back to Finn's eyes.

"That's your Mother's." She said, in shock. Finn nodded, still trying to think of what to say, but was still freaking out. Come on, he just had to say four words! Why couldn't he get those out?

"Rachel…" He began. His eyes were wide and she was smiling from ear to ear.

She seemed to notice that he was at a loss for words, so she spoke for him.

"You know, you can marry me, if you want to."

"I want to." He replied and threw his arms around her while she laughed joyously. He placed several kisses on her lips and kept pulling her into an embrace, holding her tight.

Once he released his arms from her body, he gently slipped his mother's golden engagement ring onto her ring finger while she admired it quietly. He stared deeply into her eyes and smiled. He was truly the luckiest man alive.

"Finn?" She asked, noticing his gaze.

"Thank you." He whispered.

"For what?" That was a loaded question. This was the girl who had turned his life around, who'd saved him from his depression, who'd made him feel what it was like to live again, who'd showed him what love was, who'd made him crazy, who'd made him feel probably every emotion possible. She was Rachel Berry. She was his everything. He had his answer.

"For being there. For everything."

She placed the lightest of kisses on his lips and they continued to stroll through the park, arms linked together. They were in no rush to let anyone know – they'd all find out soon enough. For tonight, they were perfectly content to walk arm and arm through Manhattan, the place they had both grown to love. With her head leaning on his shoulder and his arm through hers, everything was perfect. It was just Finn and Rachel now and forever.

He placed a soft kiss on the top of her head and smiled. He felt her warmth, taking in the sensation of her skin against his, wondering how he survived when he couldn't feel her. But now she was there for him, right by his side, and would be for many years to come.

**_The End_**

* * *

><p><strong>I know, cheesy. But hey, it's Finchel. It needs to be cheesy every now and then.<strong>

**Thank you all so much for reading this story, it was so much fun to write, and I'm glad you all enjoy it! Please keep reading and reviewing! Hopefully I'll have more stuff out soon!**

**Feel free to PM a prompt for a story as well, I'd love to write for it!**

**Again, THANK YOU! Please Review! I'd love to hear your all's thoughts! Bye for now;)**

**-Goldstarrach**


End file.
